So, here’s the deal: Heilongjiang Province’s Environmental Bureau holds a meeting to discuss environmental law enforcement in 2009, and they invite journalists to attend. But the catch? They refuse to make public the list of companies who are illegally polluting the environment. A number of journalists were so incensed by the environmental bureau’s actions that they actually left in the middle of the meeting.

Here’s the gist of why the journalists are angry and an on-the-fly translation:

按照《政府信息公开条例》、《环境信息公开办法(试行)》均属于公开的内容。《环境信息 公开办法(试行)》第四条明确规定， 环保部门应当遵循公正、公平、便民、客观的原则，及时、准确地公开政府环境信息。 黑龙江省环保厅有何理由不公开违 法排污企业的情况?而且，记者想要公开的内容，恰恰是公众最想知道的内容，也是治理违法排污企业的有力武器。黑龙江省环保厅岂能向媒体保密、向公众保密? 这不仅是对记者采访权的干扰，也是对人民群众的知情权、监督权的破坏。

According to “Government Information Public Disclosure Regulation”, “Environmental Information Public Disclosure Methods (Draft)”, this is information that needs to be disclosed to the public. The 4th regulation of the “Environmental Information Public Disclosure Methods (Draft)” clearly states that China’s environmental bureaus should adhere to the principles of justice, equality, convenience for people, and objectivity, and, in a timely and precise manner, publicly disclose the government’s environmental information. What reason does the Heilongjiang Environmental Bureau have to not disclose the status of those illegally polluting companies? Furthermore, the information that the journalists are interested in is also the information that the public is most interested in as well. It is also the most powerful weapon we have for controlling those illegally polluting industries. How can the Heilongjiang Environmental Office keep this secret from the media and the public? This not only disturbs a journalist’s right to interview, it also undermines the general public’s right to information and right to supervision.

Perhaps it isn’t surprising this is happening, given the huge benzene spill that hit the Songhua River in late 2005:

HARBIN, China, Nov. 25 – A toxic 50-mile band of contaminated river water slowly washed through this frigid provincial capital on Friday, leaving schools and many businesses closed, forcing millions of people to spend a third straight day without running water and raising fears of a long-term environmental disaster.

Well, it’s Earth Day — as for the “Happy Earth Day”, I’ll leave that up to you.

So…here’s a short list of what I’d like to see in the Middle Kingdom in 2009, and after. It is NOT a prediction; I am not honestly sure if or when any of these will happen. This is also in no particular order:

Stop following the US

For years, China has looked up to foreign countries as a model, the way younger children look up to their older siblings. But most of all, they’ve looked up to the US. We’ve been one of their “model siblings” for years. So it isn’t surprising that, after goading and coaxing from above, China has embraced capitalism (with Chinese characteristics, of course) and moved towards privatizing EVERYTHING. Privatization was supposed to mean better transparency and better pricing (because of competition) for all, so big brother US told China.

Well, that was until we all found out this year that big brother US was peddling some rather dangerous stuff, and hanging out with the wrong crowd.

I know some might call me unpatriotic for saying this, but I’m going to say it anyway: Big brother US is no longer a model for China, and quite frankly needs to go into rehab. (I should have seen this coming, even when I was at Global Sources — somewhere in 2005 I started noticing that, for China exporters, they had to meet higher standards for the EU, but not the USA. Hmmmmm….)

If China is looking for a new model, I’d say, why not instead aim to emulate countries that embrace socialism (ie taking care of your own), yet also achieve a good balance of transparency and keep the economy running. I’m not 100 percent sure who would be best, but Canada, the UK, and France all come to mind

Residency Reform

Ask anyone in China, and they’ll tell you that one of the biggest problems in society is residency — or hukou. That ID that decides which city you officially are a resident of, and what benefits you get. Currently, if you live in a big city such as Beijing or Shanghai, you get better benefits. If you live out in the countryside, you get less. So, naturally, everyone in the countryside hopes to go to the city, just to live a better life, and they have to jump through extraordinary hoops just to get there. My friend Peter, for example, spent years studying for the postgraduate exam just to get into university in Beijing, all for the purpose of getting a Beijing hukou, so he could have the right to settle there

Instead of making people twist and turn just to live where they want to live, I’d love to see the hukou system reformed, so that people can decide for themselves.

Share Colleges with more Small Towns

If you’ve ever spent any amount of time in China, you’ve probably noticed that all colleges and universities (we’re talking higher education, here, not vocational/training) tend to be in the larger cities. In fact, arguably the larger cities hoard all of these great institutions. It’s a shame on many levels. Smaller cities miss out on the benefits of having a college or university within the town, which can be a much needed source of talent, culture, and even innovation that spurs economic development.

Cities such as Hangzhou have been moving colleges out to “College Cities” in their suburbs (which are still within the city limits). What I want to know is, why can’t they share their colleges with smaller towns in the region? For example, neither Fuyang nor Tonglu (two towns in Hangzhou’s jurisdiction) have colleges or universities. Wouldn’t it have been nice to move these schools out there instead, and share the benefits that they bring to the areas?

This model is very common in the US and other countries. Jun and I currently live in Pocatello, Idaho, a town that thrives because of the presence of Idaho State University.

I hope that the next time China considers moving around colleges, it will think of cities in the countryside as possible recipients.

Conquer Noise Pollution in the Countryside

This is a personal, but sobering, one — and a side of the environmental debate we don’t hear enough about. My in-laws live out in the countryside, but ironically suffer damaging noise pollution almost 24 hours a day from factories that were haphazardly built near residential homes.

I’d like to see China pay more attention to planning in the countryside, so that these honest, hardworking people do not need to suffer from the side effects of noise pollution. As it is, my mother-in-law has battled high blood pressure that is likely the result of the noise.

Love Little Girls More

This is social wish. We all know how much the 宝孙子 (treasured grandson) is favored above all in China — so much so that residents of the countryside can have a second child if their firstborn is a girl.

Abortion or abandonment are all too common for girl babies. The result is that the sex ratio will be so skewed by 2020 that many young men will be unable, as my Chinese friends say, to solve their “personal problem” (getting married). Think serious social unrest.

Traditions don’t change easy, and it’s not just peasants. I once heard my boss — a modern young woman from Taiwan — say that she wanted to sell desks in one of the rows in our office, just because every girl (or boy) who sat there ended up with a baby boy.

Let’s hope that women will no longer be seen as “water thrown away” from the family, but instead as treasured members of the family who do more than just give birth. If not, soon there won’t even be enough of them for the men who will grow up in a few decades. (Maybe I should consider starting up a business to connect more foreign women with Chinese men?….just kidding!)

Happy New Year, everyone! 新年快乐！

Let’s be clear here — green in China isn’t just some passing fad. And in some ways, being green is a lot more popular than you might think.

Case in point? Solar-powered water heaters. I remember seeing these handy green appliances at numbers of stores back in 2001, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were available even earlier than that. Today more than 30 million Chinese households own one, accounting for 80 percent of the entire world market!

The seventh-richest man in China today — Shi Zhengrong — built his wealth on none other than photovoltaic solar cells. His company, Suntech Power Holdings, is even trading on the New York Stock Exchange. While most of his sales are overseas, it’s only a matter of time before innovation will bring the price down to something more affordable to the Chinese public.

Meanwhile, environmental groups are making headways across the country. According to this article in the China Daily, over 4,000 environmental groups have sprung up around China since 1994.

The article also goes on to highlight one of the most important constituents for a greener China — students:

In Beijing, 1,600 students attend the Number Two Middle School, an institution widely regarded as one of the best secondary schools in China.

The school is revered for producing some of the country’s best and brightest, yielding students who receive top scores on China’s annual college entrance exams.

The students at Number Two stand out, however, not only because of their academic achievement, but because of their enlightened attitude toward the environment.

Over the last few years, especially since Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympic Games, environmental awareness has gotten a new emphasis among those who will be the next generation of China’s educated leaders.

Manufacturers in China are thinking green too. I referred to Lenovo above. Add to them a number of smart and savvy green Chinese automakers, who understand that being green means profitability for the future:

One experimental clean-energy car runs on natural gas. Another uses ethanol distilled from corn. A third has a zero-emissions electric motor powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.

These alternative vehicles were created not by a global automaker but by China’s small-but-ambitious car companies, which displayed them Sunday alongside gasoline-powered sedans and sport utility vehicles at the start of the Shanghai Auto Show.

At a time when they are still trying to establish themselves in international markets, Chinese automakers are already investing in such avant-garde research in a bid to win a foothold in the next generation of technology.

“This is the tide of the industry. If you don’t go with the tide, the industry will pass you by,” said Qin Lihong, a vice president of China’s biggest domestic automaker, Chery Auto Co., in an interview ahead of the show’s opening.

It’s not just “the tide of the industry” — it’s the tide of China. A green tide. The market is there and growing…so don’t let it pass you by either.

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