Over three-quarters of the air in China’s cities is no longer “safe”. This is according to the environment ministry’s annual report, which says that the environmental wellness of China’s countryside is no better; facing an increasingly “grim” environmental crisis.
As new president Xi Jinping seeks to build what the incoming leadership has dubbed a “beautiful China”, the annual survey of China’s environment ministry laid bare the challenges he faces. As it stands, only 27 of the 113 largest Chinese cities had “safe” air last year, and nearly one third of China’s most important rivers were polluted or severely polluted. In addition, 60% of groundwater was found to be of “bad” or “extremely bad” quality by the government officials.
In rural China, the situation is even bleaker, with “increasing pressure from mining” and “heavy pollution from livestock farming” described as wreaking havoc on the countryside. The report’s authors noted, ‘Rural environmental problems have become increasingly prominent. As industrialisation, urbanisation and agricultural modernisation continues, the rural environment is in a grim situation.’ It added that overall environmental trends “remained extremely serious”.
However, last month Xi vowed to take firm action to rein in polluters and prosecute environmental criminals, in order to build an “ecological civilization”. According to Xi, ‘On issues of ecological and environmental protection, [people] should not cross the [red] line or they will get punished. We should be fully aware of the urgency and difficulty of protecting the environment and reducing pollution as well as the significance and necessity of improving the environment. We should take the responsibility for the sake of our people and our children.’
Environmental officials have even recently echoed the president’s words, with a vow to ‘crack down hard on environmental pollution and severely punish law enforcers who cover-up or indulge violators.’ However, one of China’s most controversial environmental topics is soil pollution, which the new report skirted over. It is currently – albeit unofficially – estimated that 10% of Chinese farmland could be contaminated. Experts surmise that toxins such as arsenic, lead, mercury and cadmium are slowly leaking into the food chain. For the Communist Party to bring China towards an “ecological civilisation,” it seems as though they have a long way to go.