CEF Director Jennifer Turner was interviewed by VOA Global, discussing Chinese government’s short-term measures to combat air pollution during APEC meeting in Beijing and its long-term implications.
As Asia Pacific leaders gathering in Beijing for regional summit this week, the Chinese government has taken a series of steps to try to reduce the capital city’s infinite smog. CEF Director Jennifer Turner said in a VOA Global interview that these short-term measures were important but not sufficient and it would take time for them to take effect. “They are doing almost everything that they can but … the Ministry of Environmental Protection is still not as powerful as it needs to be,” said Turner.
The main challenge for China’s anti-pollution war is its growing energy demand, according to Turner. She pointed out two sources for China’s enormous appetite, the first is expanding urbanization that will involve 350 million people over the next 10 to 15 years; the second is the global supply chain. “Twenty-five percent of electricity used in China is for product made for export,” she said, “which is you and me, the Europeans, the Japanese, the rest of the world. We depend on China to be our factory.”
Turner believed Chinese government would enforce even more aggressive steps to improve the environment, because “Chinese public and media are very vocal about their displeasure about air pollution issue”, she said, and the steps will be “Hopefully not just the short-term ones.”
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China’s global footprint isn’t just an economic one, it’s an environmental one. From BRI investments in Africa and Asia to its growing presence in Latin America, understanding China’s motivations, who stands to gain - and who stands to lose - is critical to informing smart US foreign policy. Read more
