China Complicates U.S. Foreign Policy

By John E. Carey
Peace and Freedom
April 9, 2007

Several issues between China and the United States put the relationship between these two major powers at risk. China greatly wants to calm the waters before the 2008 Olympic Games, which Beijing will host. China’s goal is to stand tall and alone on the world stage for that event, demonstrating Chinese greatness. The U.S. wants to use the Olympics as a lever to influence Chinese behavior on a number of issues prior to next year’s events.

Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona has referred to a “complicated relationship with China, which is difficult to manage under the best of circumstances. There is so much we want to engage with China.”

This week, the U.S. is expected to announce new restrictions on China as a result of copyright and trademark rule violations. China has long had little regard for international agreements regarding intellectual property. Copies of the mega-hit film “Titanic,” for example, appeared on Beijing streets for a dollar or two just one or two days after its Hollywood release.

China is a massive and growing contributor to air and water pollution as well as global warming. As China grows as an industrial super-power, it will have to face its responsibility to address these troubles. As it is now, China is exempt from any restrictions of the Kyoto Treaty because it has been labeled an “emerging or developing nation.” Only “developed” nations like the U.S. and Germany are bound by Kyoto: a major reason the U.S. has refused to join in the accord.

China is home to 20 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities, the World Bank concluded in a report last week.

Officials here have acknowledged that 410,000 deaths a year are caused by pollution in China. And China is projected to surpass the United States and become the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases by 2009.

By some accounts, China remains two decades behind the United States in its environmental standards and as much as three decades behind Europe.

The U.S. Department of State continues to list China as a major violator of human rights norms.

Freedom of the press is tenuous or non existant in China. Although the communist regime has eased some rules in advance of the Olympics, many journalist are skeptical that China can stick to its promises on freedom of the press. Critics of the regime continue to wind up in jail.

China seems out of step with some internationally held ideas and just positively opposed to the U.S. on others.

Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Sudan this year with nary a mention of the genocide in Darfur. The U.N., E.U., and U.S. have virtually denied Sudan all trade because of Darfur. China jumped right in to fill the void.

When a spokesman for President Hu was pressed on the subject he said, “It was addressed privately.”  Just this last weekend, under growing international pressure, China finally sent a delegation to at least look at Darfur.

Chinese representatives at the U.N. have wrangled against stiffer sanctions on Iran for their nuclear weapon development program and they have opposed other U.S. initiatives.

Militarily, China is shifting its focus toward more maritime and air power developments. China shot down an orbiting satellite earlier this year and last autumn a Chinese Song class submarine surfaced within five miles of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, an act considered unusual and provocative.

China’s Chief of Naval Operations visited the United States for the first time last week and the U.S. Navy CNO Admiral Mike Mullen said he wanted a better understanding of China’s “strategic intent.”

And China is starting to assert global reach.  Last week China opened a new mega-seaport in Gwadar, Pakistan.

Also last week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that the tainted pet food involved in the massive recall was due to ingredients from China.

China and the United States have differences that need to be discussed and resolved.

U.N. report raises pressure on China to cut pollution

Economic growth has brought environmental disaster, but fixing it is complicated by politics, poverty and tradition.

By Mark Magnier, Times Staff Writer
April 8, 2007

BEIJING — As China’s economy roars ahead, leaving Technicolor rivers and polluted skies in its wake, the world’s most populous nation has struggled to craft environmental policies that will appease growing numbers of critics at home and abroad.

Traditionally, many of the issues outlined in Friday’s ominous United Nations report on climate change have been framed here, as elsewhere, as a trade-off between clean air and jobs. Yet it’s also becoming increasingly evident that the division is not so clear-cut. Some studies estimate that pollution exacts a 7% to 10% cost on China’s economy.

Complicating what passes for an environmental debate in China are political sensitivities, a controlled media, widespread rural poverty and a long tradition of top-down government wary of too much “meddling” by citizens.

For two decades, China has made economic growth a priority. The results have been impressive as the country becomes a bigger player on the global stage and hundreds of millions of its people are lifted out of extreme poverty.

But the cost has been high. China is home to 20 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities, the World Bank concluded in a report last week. Officials here have acknowledged that 410,000 deaths a year are caused by pollution. And China is projected to surpass the United States and become the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases by 2009.

The U.N. report released Friday, which warned of the catastrophic results of global warming, served as a pointed indictment of the world’s biggest producers of pollution.

Lagging behind

Many of China’s neighbors, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, were able to pollute their way to prosperity and pay for the cleanup afterward. China, which comes to the development game late, is under growing international pressure to tackle its environmental problems at the same time, given its huge planetary footprint.

By some accounts, China remains two decades behind the United States in its environmental standards and as much as three decades behind Europe.

In response, Chinese leaders have set targets designed to promote alternate fuels, recycling and “green economic growth.” These include vows by Beijing to get 16% of the nation’s energy from renewable sources by 2020, double today’s rate, and to become 20% more energy efficient by 2010.

Unlike the United States, China has signed the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, although it is not required to reduce its carbon emissions under the agreement. And in two weeks, Beijing is set to release a national climate change plan that, though unlikely to break new ground, will consolidate and bring more focus to existing rules.

The effort, however, faces a host of problems. Many of the laws and regulations passed by the central government are routinely ignored or otherwise undermined by local officials because of corruption, mismanagement, greed and a system that hands out promotions based on economic growth.

“This is a big problem,” said Yang Ailun, campaign manager for energy and climate change with Greenpeace China. “An important task for the central government is to design a framework for local implementation, rather than just issuing orders from above.”

Mixed awareness

Although environmental awareness among the general public is growing, the picture is still mixed, reflecting divisions within Chinese society. Increasingly prosperous middle-class urban residents of Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing are voicing concerns. But many impoverished rural residents remain more focused on filling their rice bowls than rattling for quality-of-life improvements.

Still, the nation is seeing growing outrage and more violent protests as crops wither and children are born with birth defects caused by chemicals leaking from factories. Heart disease and respiratory problems linked to air pollution are among the leading causes of death in China, experts say, with acid rain now falling on 30% of the country.

Much of this information is successfully covered up by local officials holding an iron grip on the press and police. And victims have been prevented from organizing by a legal system that discourages class-action lawsuits.

China also has kept nongovernmental organizations on a relatively short leash, wary of any movement that might one day challenge the Communist Party’s monopoly on political power. Registration and funding rules have been tightened, some activist environmental groups have been shut down, and other restrictions have been enacted to ensure organizations remain small.

The structure of the Chinese government creates other problems. Although the State Environmental Protection Administration, or SEPA, was elevated to the ministry level a few years ago, it is still far outgunned in terms of personnel and budget by ministries that oversee resource extraction, construction, industry and land use.

Even within SEPA, officials’ hands are tied. In a quirk of the Chinese governmental hierarchy, local SEPA inspectors are paid by and otherwise dependent on the mayors and local Communist Party secretaries they are supposed to oversee, creating potential conflicts of interest.

Carbon trading

Beijing has not denied the scope of climate change or its potential consequences for China. But its basic position remains that developed countries must take the lead. It also argues that globalization has dealt it a disproportionate share of the problem, given the relocation of many energy-intensive, polluting industries to China, including steel, aluminum, cement, paper, chemicals and petrochemicals.

One early bright spot has been China’s growing interest in carbon trading, under which pollution rights are traded globally in an effort to bring down overall carbon dioxide output.

Beijing has expressed interest in the idea. Not only would it allow the central government to show critics that it’s trying to be a responsible global citizen, the system promises to bring investment to local governments, create jobs and improve environments.

“It’s a fabulous opportunity for China to do the right thing, and lots of projects will be developed that wouldn’t be otherwise,” said Scott Lamont, chief executive of Beijing-based Clean Energy Services, a carbon trading firm. “The main concern, though, is that there be ongoing monitoring. You have to make sure what the money is allocated for actually gets built, as with any industry in China.”

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mark.magnier@latimes.com

Military planes dump water in haze-hit Thailand

BANGKOK (AFP) – Military planes have flown over northern Thailand, dumping water in an effort to contain haze which has affected some five million people for the past two weeks, an official said Saturday.

Two aircraft dropped water in the northern tourist hotspot of Chiang Mai where air quality still remained at a level considered unhealthy due to the haze caused by slash-and-burn farming and wildfires in the region and parts of neighboring Laos and Myanmar.

Army-installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, who visited the haze-hit region this week, ordered the military to dispatch planes to ease environmental and health effects of the haze, said an air force spokesman.

“Initially, our operation covers only Chiang Mai, but we will assess the situation and may expand (water spraying operations) to other haze-hit provinces,” said Group Captain Monthol Suchookorn.

Apart from Chiang Mai, the haze has blanketed seven northern provinces and the public health ministry said it affected the health of 1.5 million residents, mostly suffering eye irritation and sore throats.

The public health ministry has distributed some 600,000 surgical masks and enlisted thousands of volunteers to distribute them and offer advice about possible respiratory problems.

The ministry also has handed out 400,000 booklets on how to cope with haze.