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As lawmakers and top-notch experts meet in Beijing to confer on
China's future road for development, a sandstorm sweeping the
national capital and elsewhere in north China Tuesday night comes
as a warning that ecological protection constitute a major part of
the sustainable development strategy.
While the rare gale-force dusty wind was swirling across the
broad Chang'an Avenue in central Beijing Wednesday, Chinese leaders
and some ministerial and provincial officials converged in the
Great Hall of the People by the roadside for a scheduled seminar on
population, resources and the environment.
President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiao both stressed at the
meeting that big, substantial efforts must be made to increase the
man-nature harmony and the harmony between economic growth and
population, resources and the environment.
Since they assumed office a year ago, Hu and Wen and other
members of the central leadership have been working hard for the
country's coordinated development, which is hailed as a criticism
of those officials long indulged in GDP-centered development.
A seminar on population, resources and the environment held by
central authorities has become an annual event for consecutive
years on the sidelines of the annual sessions of the National
People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top legislature and
advisory body respectively.
Encouraged by the new concept of scientific development that is
aimed to do away with the long-standing "GDP worshipping", many NPC
deputies and CPPCC members voiced vehement calls for beefing up
legislation for ecological protection.
Wang Xi, a member of the CPPCC National Committee and a noted
expert in environmental laws, is in a heavy mood while talking
about the worsening environment in numerous places of the country,
especially the rapid desertification encroaching upon the farmland
for nearly 400 million people in 471 counties in 18 provinces.
Wang cited statistics as saying that in the four decades from
1950s to 1990s, the acreage of desertification in China expanded
from 560 sq km to 2,460 sq km a year.
"With the dwindling capacity of natural resources to support
human activities, environmental degeneration is bound to be
irreversible," he warned.
CPPCC National Committee member Yin Hongfu is of a more radical
view that "Humankind might possibly head to extinction like
dinosaurs millions of years ago if we cannot halt destruction to
the natural equilibrium and fail to co-exist with other living
beings in harmony."
Yin, also president of China Geology University (Wuhan), called
for a nationwide introspection of the current production mode and
lifestyle in the wake of the SARS and bird flu outbreak.
NPC deputy Wang Junlin is keen on the people's call for a better
environment, acknowledging that the Chinese people, who are getting
better of with the rapid economic growth of their nation, pay more
attention to environmental problems.
"Environmental protection should go side by side with economic
growth," said Wang, an entrepreneur from southwestern Sichuan
Province where much of the country's "return-farmland-to-forest"
program is being carried out on the upper reaches of the Yangtze
River.
NPC deputies and CPPCC members also put forward proposals in an
effort to push for accelerated legislation governing ecological
protection and improvement.
Li Guo'an, a military officer who has led his men in searching
water resources in the vast Gobi desert in northwestern China for
more than 30 years, called for scientific ways for restoring
vegetation.
"It's wise to grow whatever suits specific local conditions in
the desert -- trees, bushes or grass, and none of the greenery
plans should be built on long-term reliance on man-made irrigation
systems," said Li.
As environmental protection is placed high on the agenda of
China's strategic plan to develop the vast western regions,
legislators and advisors also urged equal importance to the current
endeavor to invigorate the "rust-belt" industrial base in the
northeast.
CPPCC member Niu Wenyuan suggested discarding the out-dated
production mode that "large-scale production and consumption result
in heavy environmental pollution."
While heated discussion over plans for China's further
development is going on at the NPC and CPPCC annual sessions, the
State Statistics Bureau has begun looking into an index system to
assess and determine the performance of the national economy dubbed
as "Green GDP".
"Green GDP", which deducts the costs of resources consumption
and environmental damage from gross domestic product, will help
sharpen people's awareness of sustainable development, said Xu
Xianchun, a senior official with the statistics bureau.
Some indices of the "Green GDP" system have been tried tested in
Hainan Province and Chongqing Municipality, said Xu, adding that
local leaders in Beijing, Zhejiang, Anhui, Guangdong, Fujian and
Jiangsu provinces have decided to take losses to the environment
and natural resources as a major part of their local GDP.
Observers noted that all this indicates "Green GDP" may become
the newest fruit on the vine of the development approach to harmony
between man and nature.
(Xinhua News Agency March 11, 2004)
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