October, 2005

A Thought on China's National Day - Economic Growth at the Expense of Ecological Destruction and Human Security

Rose Wu

Since Deng Xiaoping initiated China's open-door and economic reform policy in 1978, China has been one of the major destinations for foreign investment and trade. Between 1978 and 2000, trade increased 24-fold, and today China is the premier recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Asia. Moreover, exports and foreign investment in 2003 generated 40 percent of China's gross domestic product (GDP). On Dec. 11, 2001, China formally joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which marked China's full-fledged acceptance into the global economy.

Does this rosy picture reflect the total reality of life in China though? What have been the political and social effects of its rapid economic growth through increased openness to foreign investment and trade?

According to Abigail R. Jahiel, an assistant professor of the environmental studies programme at Illinois Wesleyan University, China in the past decade has experienced a rapid and severe increase in its already serious environmental problems. In many parts of China, people now face critical water shortages, severe air and water pollution problems, serious soil degradation, loss of arable land, flooding and desertification and sand storms. Meanwhile, countless workers face occupational health hazards similar to those in the West during the early days of the Industrial Revolution, and farmers are routinely exposed to high levels of toxic pesticides.

One critical issue which has aroused international attention is the serious water shortages in China. The World Bank estimated last year that China's internal fresh water resources per person amounted to just more than 2,200 cubic metres a year, about one-third of the world average and less than half the East Asia and Pacific average. The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) says industrial toxins, human waste and farm fertiliser have polluted all seven of the country's main rivers and 25 of its 27 largest lakes and that water shortages in more than 100 of its 660 cities are already acute. In the capital, supply per head now stands at a dangerously low 300 cubic metres a year.

Another indicator of the human health impacts of environmental destruction is that chronic pulmonary disease is now the leading cause of death in China. A primary reason for this disease is the heavy reliance on coal to fuel China's growth. The rush to get coal from the ground to meet the mainland's ever-growing needs has made the mining industry the most dangerous in the world. Officially, 6,027 coal miners were killed last year, but the figure is probably much higher because of many illegal mines and operators covering up the real nature of some disasters.

In order to integrate into the world economy, China has increased the threat of global competition to the local agricultural sector by opening up its market. As Prof. Luk Tak-chuen points out in his paper "WTO and the Chinese Peasantry," under demands for structural adjustments in the agricultural sector from higher authorities, local governments at all levels have made their stand clear by responding positively to the move, forcing farmers to shift their production to monocrop agriculture. The commercialisation of production not only destroys the ability of farmers to make decisions; it also forces farmers into a more turbulent market relationship.

As for workers, an investment firm predicted that as many as 40 million people are likely to be thrown out of work within the first five years of China's entry into the WTO (of whom 10 million could be former peasants). Even as early as mid-1988, an academic survey in China revealed that half of those laid off had been out of work for more than a year, a sixth for more than three years. They will just be excluded and destined to compose a group of workers with long-term, unstable job prospects.

How can the people of China take their economic lives into their own hands? What are the strategic actions needed to bring about alternatives to the current neo-liberal economic system which leads to more ecological destruction and human exploitation?

For the future of China, we must affirm that the land, water and environment are God's Creation and are abundantly given to humanity through grace. We must resist ecological irresponsibility based on the capitalist assumption of endless economic expansion on a finite material earth. We must put people before profit and seek an alternative economy that upholds life and ensures the provision of basic needs for all. We resist the current employment system, which involves increasing unemployment, deterioration of the quality of work and the absence of labour rights protection. We resist the lack of adequate regulatory measures for international corporations and financial investments and the transformation of local governments into puppets of the international economic order. There is also a need to strengthen grassroots democratic participation in order to regulate the economy and support social sector developments.

As Christians, we believe the earth is God's Creation. Through Jesus Christ, God gives life in abundance to all people and the whole of Creation. In contrast to the ideology of unlimited accumulation and growth and the theology of prosperity, we affirm the theology of grace and compassion which enables us to see the needs of our neighbours. We affirm a market with social controls in which all activities are responsible, ethical and oriented toward the common good. We affirm the need of repentance and human solidarity. We affirm the right of people to take charge of their economic lives, especially the primacy of the poor. We believe that a sustained commitment for economic justice has to be built up from below.

May the Spirit of Mercy open our ears so that we can hear the cries of the victims of the neo-liberal trade policies in China and around the world—the landless farmers, the homeless, the migrant workers, the poor patients, the hungry, the unemployed, the child labourers, the exploited workers, the helpless elderly, the abused women at home and at work. May the Spirit of Hope grant us the vision and courage to commit ourselves to build a global people's movement to turn the world upside down so that those who sow will have food to eat, those who build homes will find shelter and the children, the old, the sick and the poor will have security of life.

By the love of God, the earth is blessed.

By the love of God, the people are blessed.

By the love of God, the communities are blessed.