Environmental Protection Efforts in China’s ‘Developed East’ Are Overestimated

China Watch Home About China Watch

The Chinese people are used to dividing their country into three parts—the East, the Middle, and the West. Although the East has played a dominant role in China’s economic growth, there is no evidence that this region’s efforts in environmental protection have also outpaced others. Rather, the rapid economic development in the so-called “developed East” has come at the cost of environmental degradation and ecological loss, and the effects of this destruction are emerging daily.

There is no city in China that is clean from an environmental perspective. Even cities as “modern” as Beijing and Shanghai or as “beautiful” as Hangzhou, Xiamen, Dalian, and Zhuhai are not capable of self-cleaning. Trash and wastewater generated from many cities along the east coast are either discharged directly into nearby rivers, lakes, and coastal waters, or just deposited in low-lying land areas.

In Beijing, the system for municipal wastewater treatment has not yet been completed, the city’s garbage is mainly deposited in landfills, and air pollution is tackled by removing or relocating highly polluting companies beyond the city’s boundaries. Meanwhile, the capital is facing the challenges of pollution from auto emissions as well as from household wastewater discharge.

The expanding “green” area in Beijing in recent years has done little to improve local ecology and protect the environment, because these green belts are simply a mix of grass and tall trees. The grass is mostly imported from overseas, and the trees are chosen from a standard selection for parks—including poplars, willows, pagoda trees, and ginkgos. These trees not only consume a large amount of water, but they have turned Beijing into a home of artificial trees. Wild animals can hardly survive in a forest of monotype vegetation, and as a result, the city’s biodiversity is declining.

Urban dwellers are expanding this “greening” model to the suburbs, where they have planted large amounts of polar, cypress, and pine. While the forest coverage has been dramatically increased, the ability to maintain water and soil in the ground and the diversity of the forests remain at a low level.

Xiaoxian Zhen, a professor at Beijing Forestry University who has been studying sustainable forestry management for many years, once criticized Beijing at a conference for planting too many cypress pines. “Beijing has been planting cypress pine since the 1950s, but this green-looking tree is only a ‘green disguise,’” he observed. “The mistakenly planted trees are left on the ground, only contributing to local forest coverage while generating little ecological benefit.”

Mountainous areas in southeast China’s Fujian Province are also experiencing local environmental degradation due to overdevelopment. Mountains that were covered with dense natural forests 30 years ago are now being converted to orchards by local residents who wish to earn more income than from traditional farming. Village leaders will even employ people to cut down thick natural forests and replace them with commercially valuable trees, such as Chinese fir, eucalyptus, and pine. From local forestry bureau documents, it is possible to find out how many new trees have been planted to help “improve local ecology.”

But the downside of development is showing its face. Because fruit trees and firs are unable to efficiently maintain water and soil in the ground, rainfall can easily trigger mud and rock slides and large floods. Although Fujian is currently the most forested province in China, it is more likely that both local biodiversity and the human quality of life are declining.

Yongfeng Feng is an acclaimed editor and journalist at China Guangming Daily who reports and writes on science and technology issues. Outside contributions to China Watch reflect the views of the author and are not necessarily the views of the Worldwatch Institute.

China Watch is a joint initiative of the Worldwatch Institute and Beijing-based Global Environmental Institute (GEI) and is supported by the blue moon fund.