China's Environmental Watchdog Vows Tougher Enforcement of Rules

By Shai Oster
13 March 2006
The Wall Street Journal

BEIJING -- China's new top environmental watchdog warned that the country's pollution woes could worsen and vowed to try to get the problem under control with tougher enforcement of regulations.

With a commitment to seriously enforce antipollution measures, "the government has given me a very powerful weapon; if I use this weapon properly, I will not end up resigning," Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, said at a news conference Saturday.

Mr. Zhou's predecessor, Xie Zhenhua, was the highest-ranking official to resign over the Nov. 13 chemical spill in the Songhua River. The spill forced Harbin, a major city in northeast China, to shut its water supply, and it sent toxins into Russia.

Russian and Chinese scientists have found that the spring thaw of the Songhua River won't produce a second wave of the benzene that was first released into it, Mr. Zhou said. He declared fish and milk products from the region safe to eat.

The Songhua incident brought into focus the environmental toll of more than two decades of breakneck economic growth. China's cities and rivers are among the most polluted in the world.

Until recently, the state had put growth before the environment, but that appears to be changing -- at least at the top levels of the government. Energy conservation and environmental protection have taken center stage in this year's meeting of the National People's Congress, set to end tomorrow.

"In the past, in terms of environmental protection, we were very passive," said Mr. Zhou, in some of his first public comments since taking office. "Now there has been a U-turn."

The news conference was one of a series of public appearances by senior officials during the annual National People's Congress meeting. The Chinese leadership is trying to use the gathering to address side effects of the country's rapid economic growth and fend off a backlash from some Chinese scholars and Communist Party members. Critics say that economic liberalization has triggered a range of problems, from a large and widening wealth gap between urban and rural residents to widespread environmental pollution.

After the Songhua spill, the government began inspecting 21,000 factories that line China's major waterways. It is also reviewing old environmental-assessment reports to make sure they were properly done and is increasing supervision of nuclear and radiation safety and mines and plants, among other measures, a report by the state administration said.

Mr. Zhou warned that if no attention is paid to the environment because the focus is on economic growth, "what's burned are our resources; what's left over is pollution."

As part of a broad effort to cut by 20% the amount of energy needed to produce this year's increases in gross domestic product, the government has said it will shut enterprises that inefficiently use resources. "Facts have proved that prosperity at the expense of the environment is very superficial and very weak," Mr. Zhou said. "It's only delaying disaster."

The government is also working on raising the prices of energy and other resources such as water to encourage conservation, said Jiang Weixin, vice chairman of the National Reform and Development Commission, China's top economic policy-making body. But he didn't offer a timetable for when that could occur.

Analysts are watching China's pricing policy, particularly for gasoline and diesel fuels. China is now the world's second-biggest consumer of oil after the U.S. Analysts are divided over the short-term impact of higher Chinese fuel prices. Some say it would lower demand; others say it would spur refiners to produce more fuel -- and buy up more crude oil -- because they could make more profit.