China is looking likely to be embarrassed by its failure to curb pollution in advance of the Olympics:
China has gone to Olympian lengths to try to ensure that its skies are clear for the Summer Games, which formally kick off in 10 days. It has spent $17 billion on antipollution measures in recent years. Last week, it forced more than a million cars off the streets, halted construction in and around the city, and temporarily closed hundreds of factories in surrounding provinces.
But despite these measures, the Chinese capital remains mired in a gray haze, and the government’s pollution readings have exceeded its own safe levels four out of the past eight days.
Now, with the prospect of international embarrassment looming, officials are considering even tougher measures, including shutting more factories. They might also ban as many as 90% of Beijing’s private vehicles on especially bad days during the Games, a government adviser said Monday. Special lanes for Olympic VIPs may be abandoned because officials say they’re causing extra congestion and making the air worse.
I hope they are embarrassed. It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of totalitarian thugs. But the key point is this one:
The success or failure of Beijing’s efforts in the coming days could help determine whether China’s most important international event in modern times is itself a success. But it also has implications that go beyond the ability of the city to host a clean Games.
Scientists from around the world are studying the antipollution efforts to see what, if anything, succeeds — and what the costs are. These conclusions could affect policies in countries like India. . .
China’s authoritarian government can compel companies and citizens to comply with regulations more easily than other countries can. The government’s antipollution measures have disrupted workday commutes for hundreds of thousands of residents, and caused tens of thousands of workers to go on forced holiday, with reduced pay.
So if Beijing can’t succeed — even in the short term — the current experiment could bode ill for the ability of other industrializing countries to curb pollution.
If authoritarian environmentalism can’t make it in China, it can’t make it anywhere.
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