ad info




TIME Asia
TIME Asia Home
Current Issue
Magazine Archive
Asia Buzz
Travel Watch
Web Features
  Entertainment
  Photo Essays

Subscribe to TIME
Customer Services
About Us
Write to TIME Asia

TIME.com
TIME Canada
TIME Europe
TIME Pacific
TIME Digital
Asiaweek
Latest CNN News

Young China
Olympics 2000
On The Road

 ASIAWEEK.COM
 CNN.COM
  east asia
  southeast asia
  south asia
  central asia
  australasia
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 SHOWBIZ
 ASIA WEATHER
 ASIA TRAVEL


Other News
From TIME Asia

Culture on Demand: Black is Beautiful
The American Express black card is the ultimate status symbol

Asia Buzz: Should the Net Be Free?
Web heads want it all -- for nothing

JAPAN: Failed Revolution
Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori clings to power as dissidents in his party finally decide not to back a no-confidence motion

Cover: Endgame?
After Florida's controversial ballot recount, Bush holds a 537-vote lead in the state, which could give him the election

TIME Digest
FORTUNE.com
FORTUNE China
MONEY.com

TIME Asia Services
Subscribe
Subscribe to TIME! Get up to 3 MONTHS FREE!

Bookmark TIME
TIME Media Kit
Recent awards

TIME Asia Asiaweek Asia Now TIME Asia story

Toxic China
As breakneck economic growth transforms the country into an environmental disaster zone, a few devoted activists are struggling to turn things around--before it's too late
By TERRY McCARTHY Beijing and JAIME A. FLORCRUZ Dalian

The Chinese Communist Party is not given to admitting it is wrong. But when President Jiang Zemin stood up last September at a rally celebrating the "victory" over the Yangtze River floods, he did just that. The flooding, which killed 3,600 people and left millions homeless, showed that for too long China, in its drive for economic development, had ignored nature. From now on, Jiang said, there should be "coordinated development of the economy and ecological environment."

Now comes the hard part: translating Jiang's formula into action. The Chinese President's words may have been insightful, but will they be heeded when memories of the flood recede and economic imperatives again loom large? Confronting China's environmental problems is like counting fish in a river--it's hard to know where to start and impossible to end. Except that in China, 70% of all waterways are drying up or so polluted there are no fish.

Zhaba Duojie thought he had found a good place to start, on the vast Tibetan plateau in northwestern Qinghai province. A Communist Party functionary, Zhaba began patrolling the plains as a self-styled game warden. In that corner of China, armed men in four-wheel-drive pickup trucks routinely hunt the endangered chiru antelope for the soft fur under its chin that is used to make shahtoosh shawls. Trade in shahtoosh is outlawed across the world, but the shawls end up on the black market, where they sell for as much as $10,000. Life on the snowy wastes of Qinghai is unforgiving: last October Zhaba, 46, showed Time pictures of two antelope poachers he had shot dead after they attacked him and his men with automatic rifles. But Zhaba was happy to be out on patrol. His men seemed to worship his fearless good nature, and he felt he was finally doing something worthwhile with his life. To further guard against poaching, he was drawing up a plan to protect the newly established nature preserve Kekexili in western Qinghai.

But on Nov. 8 Zhaba committed suicide by shooting himself in the head--three times. Or so the local authorities improbably claimed when news of Zhaba's death reached Beijing. Environmentalists in the capital were incredulous, suspecting the involvement of poaching interests. "The specific cause of his death needs further investigation as there are many questionable points in this case," editorialized the Beijing Youth Daily. The paper said Zhaba's wife had left their house at about 10 p.m. to look for their youngest son at a neighbor's home when she heard three shots. She rushed back and found her husband slumped in a pool of blood. He was taken to a hospital and declared dead-on-arrival.

Cynics pass the same judgment on the state of environmentalism in China: DOA. For every concerned individual, they say, there are tens of millions who are little inclined to ponder the ecological consequences of their actions as they eke out a meager living. And if that is the case in many developing countries, in China the problem is infinitely more acute because of the sheer size of its population--at 1.2 billion, China is home to nearly one-quarter of the world's people--trying to exist on barely 7% of the earth's cultivable land. And with its reliance on coal to produce 75% of its energy, China also exports a lot of its pollution--acid rain to Korea, smog to Hong Kong.

The problems are daunting. Nine of the 10 most air-polluted cities in the world are in China, according to a recent report by the World Resources Institute in Washington, and respiratory disease is the leading cause of death. Even China's topography works against it: mountains cover 58% of the country--compared with only 15% of the United States, for example--exacerbating China's shortage of farmland while heightening susceptibility to soil erosion.

PAGE 1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5




Daily

March 1, 1999

Sick Man Of Asia
China's grim environmental record

Barren Rock
For a world-class city, Hong Kong is a mess


This edition's table of contents | TIME Asia home

AsiaNow


   LATEST HEADLINES:

WASHINGTON
U.S. secretary of state says China should be 'tolerant'

MANILA
Philippine government denies Estrada's claim to presidency

ALLAHABAD
Faith, madness, magic mix at sacred Hindu festival

COLOMBO
Land mine explosion kills 11 Sri Lankan soldiers

TOKYO
Japan claims StarLink found in U.S. corn sample

BANGKOK
Thai party announces first coalition partner



TIME:

COVER: President Joseph Estrada gives in to the chanting crowds on the streets of Manila and agrees to make room for his Vice President

THAILAND: Twin teenage warriors turn themselves in to Bangkok officials

CHINA: Despite official vilification, hip Chinese dig Lamaist culture

PHOTO ESSAY: Estrada Calls Snap Election

WEB-ONLY INTERVIEW: Jimmy Lai on feeling lucky -- and why he's committed to the island state



ASIAWEEK:

COVER: The DoCoMo generation - Japan's leading mobile phone company goes global

Bandwidth Boom: Racing to wire - how underseas cable systems may yet fall short

TAIWAN: Party intrigues add to Chen Shui-bian's woes

JAPAN: Japan's ruling party crushes a rebel ì at a cost

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans need to have more babies. But success breeds selfishness


Launch CNN's Desktop Ticker and get the latest news, delivered right on your desktop!

Today on CNN
 Search

Back to the top   © 2000 Time Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.