The more I see China wrestling with its environment, the more I'm convinced that it is going to prove much easier for China to have gone from Communism to capitalism than to go from dirty capitalism to clean capitalism.
After a week of meetings with Chinese energy, environmental and clean-car experts, I’m left with one big, gnawing question: Can China go green without going orange?
That is, can China really undertake the energy/environmental revolution it needs without the empowerment of its people to a whole new degree — a la the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004?
The more I see China wrestling with its environment, the more I’m convinced that it is going to prove much easier for China to have gone from Communism to capitalism than to go from dirty capitalism to clean capitalism.
China’s Communist Party leaders are clearly wrestling with this issue. I could hear it while interviewing government officials. They’ve always wanted a steadily rising GDP, which is essential for China’s stability and for the legitimacy of the ruling Communist Party.
But I heard these same officials now saying they want a better environment and a higher GDP, because the air has become so filthy, and the damage to China’s health, rivers, landscape, has become so severe, that the legitimacy of the Communist regime is in some way dependent on making the air cleaner.
For now, though, they want to address this problem without having to change the basic ruling system of the Communist Party. They want to be green and red, not green and orange.
In June, China’s State Council dictated that all government agencies, associations, companies and private owners in public buildings had to set air-conditioning temperatures no lower than 26 degrees Celsius, or 79 degrees Fahrenheit.
Air-conditioning consumes one-third of the energy demand here in summer. Sounds effective. But then you pick up the Shanghai Daily and read: “More than half of the city’s public buildings have failed to obey power-saving rules, according to local energy authorities”.
I was at the World Bank office in Beijing, meeting with a green expert, and outside his big bay window all I could see through the brownish-gray haze was the gigantic steel skeleton of the new CCTV skyscraper — spectacular 6-million-square-foot headquarters reaching to the heavens — one of 300 new office blocks slated for Beijing’s new Central Business District.
I look at the office buildings I pass — which are enormous, energy-consuming and architecturally stunning — and I count the ones that would be tourist attractions if they were in Washington, but here in Beijing are just lost in the forest of giant buildings.
And that brings me back to China’s leaders. Right now they want it all — higher GDP, greener GDP, and unquestioned Communist Party rule.
I don’t think you can have all three. I also don’t think they are going to opt for democracy. I am not even sure it is the answer for them right now. So they are seeking a hybrid model — some new combination of red, green and orange.
I hope they find it, but right now the vista is mostly an ugly shade of brown.
