China's social and environmental problems

Two farmers with buffalo in a dried water pond in drought-hit Guizhou, south-west China. [Photo/CFP] Barely a week goes by at the moment without news of another mining accident leaving miners trapped underground and lucky to be rescued. The usual story is that the mine had been ordered to be closed in 2009 but carried on illegally and then a gas explosion or flooding or both rips through mines and mining communities usually in Sichuan or Henan. It was thrilling to hear the report of 148 miners being rescued last week after being trapped underground for over a week with five sadly not surviving. One survivor was quoted as saying: "When I was trapped I kept on telling myself that I couldn't die no matter what. I would make it out alive to see my child." In 2009 there were 1,600 reported mining accidents and 2,631 miners killed.

Alongside the mining disasters there are regular reports of environmental catastrophes including drought and landslides with snowstorms and sandstorms continue to blow over north China. Dead fish are being swept ashore in lakes and rivers too toxic for them to live in any more whilst water tables reduce at an alarming rate. In south-west China there is a drought: 24.25 million people and 15 million farm animals are short of water. Many villages are reliant on water tankers filling up wells and rationing only sufficient for life - no water for washing. The drought is reported as the worst in a century. Unusual and rare wildlife such as the languor (a long-tailed monkey) are being driven to extinction and tigers even in captivity are starving to death. Our research assistant, Kate Yan, at CEIBS (China Europe International Business School) tells me that many of the western grasslands have been destroyed by people digging for a valuable Chinese herb called Dongchongxiacao, used in traditional Chinese medicine and by gold diggers and also by an epidemic mice problem. The poisons used for the mice create further destruction to water sources and the eco-system.

China also faces food additive scandals: bleach added to flour; melamine to milk (still in 2010); recycled cooking oil from drains being used by food outlets; pesticide-tainted chives - all being reported as symptomatic of corrupt and unethical practices. There is now a fast-growing outbreak of "hand-foot-mouth disease" currently affecting 200,000 in one province accompanied by 94 infant deaths and a fast-growing diabetes problem (caused by dietary changes) which has historically not been a significant illness in China. Property prices in Shanghai and major cities are being driven beyond the reach of ordinary people who end up living in cramped rented rooms and suffering from sleep deprivation. A columnist in China Daily recently wrote that "some local governments, eager to make profits, grant permission to polluting industries" and many of the officials who have done so now find themselves being investigated for corruption - the official "public enemy number one".

These tragedies are amongst many in China that get little reporting internationally but characterise a nation grappling with huge demands on its natural resources with severe social and environmental consequences. I was struck by the reflections and observations of Zhu Yuan in an article entitled "Alienated with this new strange place", the "strange place" being the China of today contrasted with the China of the writer's childhood (China Daily 7 April). He reflected on the social consequences of China's economic boom with insecurity being the Zeitgeist. "Chinese people are not what they used to be", he says referring to the loss of contentment. Zhu finds himself and his friends experiencing "anxiety and insecurity" and desperate for more money and "fancy things". "This obsession with money has deprived us of our souls", he writes. For Zhu, the wrongs can be traced to "the sole pursuit of profits without any ethical concern". He ends with a spiritual question:

We need to ask whether making money is the sole pursuit in life. If it is, where will our journey end? Does the value of life lie only in the pursuit of wealth?