The so-called economic miracle of China has kept many people confused about the Chinese autocratic regime because the Chinese government has been trying hard to show the world that China has become a truthful and responsible member of the international community in controlling the bird flu epidemic. However, the Chinese government's recent attempts to cover up the serious contamination of the Songhua River [1] reminds the world yet again that the way it manages crises is very different from democratic governments, and that its promise to "never again hide any serious disaster or accident" after the SARS incident remains wholly unreliable.
One serious, yet largely unnoticed problem is that China has long been a major industrial polluter. The most recent benzene spill caught the world's attention only because of its suddenness and extent. Actually, the myth behind China's economic boom lies in environmental pollution and ecological deterioration, both of which cost the Chinese people an extremely high price.
China says it is a big manufacturing country. However, this big manufacturer has been heavily relying on its township enterprises [2] . According to surveys, the added value of China's township enterprises makes up 49.6 percent of the industrial added value of the national industries. Township enterprises have become the mainstay of China's economy — the main source for the raising of farmers' incomes and promoting rural economic development.
Although township enterprises brought job increases and tax contributions to China, it also brought bad news. Among the 38 professions in which township enterprises are engaged, 33 are associated with serious occupational hazards, including acute poisoning. The 15 most hazardous professions include mining, metallurgy, construction material manufacturing, chemical engineering, metal product manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, plastics, machinery, textile manufacturing, the food industry, furniture-making, papermaking, printing, handicraft and art manufacturing. There are 6,533 occupations in county industrial enterprises that risk exposure to toxic and harmful materials. Varying degrees of occupational danger in more than five million township enterprises nationwide, in 80 percent of all the township enterprises in China. Moreover, 25.15 million workers who work in toxic and harmful environments with dust, chemicals and noise, make up 32.8 percent of all workers in township enterprises,
Many cases of pollution by benzene have been reported. Benzene solvent is a raw material used in shoemaking industry, and China is the world's leading manufacturer of shoes, producing six billion pairs of shoes every year, with 51 percent of world production. Shoemaking enterprises are heavily centralized in Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces. In those regions, incidents of worker fatalities due to poisoning by benzene occur frequently. Cases of fatal poisoning from other chemicals, such as n-hexane, trichloromethane, trichloroethene and dichloroethane also occur. However, since these deaths occur within the lowest level of Chinese society, the companies can always pay small amounts of money in compensation, therefore preventing the issue from turning into a political problem.
However, environmental pollution is different from acute poisoning. The impact on the ecosystem is cumulative and affects human survival conditions. Severe environment pollution will eventually cause various epidemics. Immunologists understand that China has already become the source of various such epidemics. While the worldwide panic caused by SARS in 2003 is not completely over, this year, the world is being tortured miserably by bird flu originating in China. The most serious problem doesn't lie in the bird flu itself. Instead, it lies in the assiduous attempts of cover-up by the Chinese government.
A few months ago, thousands of birds suddenly died at Qinghai Lake in China. The cause of the deaths was not known. Back then, the World Health Organization hoped that China would provide bird specimens for research, but authorities refused to provide either specimens or blood samples. Since then, the birds that once rested at Qinghai Lake have continued their migrations and thus spread the bird flu virus around the world. However, the Chinese state media were busy reporting bird flu cases everywhere else in the world, especially in those countries close to China, in an attempt to make China seem like the victim.
Once the world confirmed China as the source of bird flu, the Chinese government still responded very slowly. The United States government allocated $7 billion funding for vaccine research and production. However, China, a country that claims equality with the US on GDP, only allocated $0.2 billion yuan (equivalent to US$0.025 billion) funding. The departments of Agriculture and Health, who originally shirked responsibility for bird flu, later fought tooth and nail for this funding. On the question of prevention and treatment, the Department of Agriculture thinks that its responsibility is only to prevent epidemics within livestocks and birds while the Department of Health thinks that its responsibility is only to prevent epidemics in humans. Neither department thinks that its responsibility covers the prevention of transmission of the virus from birds to humans.
In addition, China has harmed not only its own environment but also other countries in the world, particularly its neighboring countries. Southeast Asian countries have been affected by pollution from Chinese rivers for a long time. Japan and South Korea were lashed by sandstorms originating from Mongolia. The polluted air in Hong Kong has been a long-standing issue. Even part of Los Angeles' notorious pollution can be attributed to pollution swept across the vast Pacific Ocean from China, affecting the local air quality. Such pollution drifting from China negates half of the United States' efforts for environmental protection.
The Songhua River incident and how the Chinese government handled the crisis demonstrates that China is very far from being a responsible member of the international community.
Notes:
[1] Please see China's Cover Up of Chemical Accident Unveiled for detailed information.
[2] Township enterprises are business run by farmers in the countryside of China. Township enterprises are involved in various spheres, such as industry, agricultural product processing, transportation and communication, construction, commerce and catering.
