Right after I read about Baoding China being the first city to go really green in China, I also found this article about the U.S. and China partnering for clean energy research. The article on ABC New’s website stated this effort is a compromise between the two governments that disagree on whether China should join wealthier nations in cutting its greenhouse gas emissions.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/WireStory?id=8085845&page=1.
According to the article: “With initial financing of $15 million and headquarters in both countries, the center will focus on coal and clean buildings and vehicles, said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. It highlights potential U.S.-Chinese cooperation in an industry that Washington says could create thousands of jobs.” It certainly garnered thousands of jobs for Baoding China.
Oddly, I happened to catch the Emmy nominated interview between Fareed Zakaria of CNN and China’s Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday about the same time. Wen offered insight as to why China does not respond to the rest of the world’s assertion that they are a super power and should be more proactive and involved politically around the world. Wen said China is not a super power by any means. He said although China is moving fast with their economy and social reform, there are far more rural areas that are below par compared to China’s major cities.
And while we see China as communist, Wen seemed to describe China as more socialist/capitalist—think Hong Kong here. Fareed asked if Wen thought socialism could support a free market system? Wen explained there are visible workings of a free market and the invisible. The best scenario is a balanced free market through guidance and regulation by government. Wen sighted the book A Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith as an ideal. It is considered the first modern work of economics and Smith is considered to be the father of modern economics. A central belief of Smith is that labor is the measure of a nation’s wealth not it’s stores of gold and silver. Sound’s like China.
Both countries are hoping to avoid trade barriers by working together. The article stated: “China is promoting solar, wind and hydroelectric power to reduce reliance on imported oil and gas, which its communist leaders see as a strategic weakness. But Beijing has rejected binding emissions commitments, saying it is the responsibility of rich countries to cut their own output.” Again, they do not view themselves as a super power.
The whole time Wen was talking so candidly about the future, he made sense, and actually seemed charming. China will certainly be promoting a much greener economy since this interview took place before the breaking story about Baoding China’s resourceful turnaround from an auto and manufacturing center to a major supplier of solar and green tech products. This puts China is a position ahead of us already, super power or not. We’re still haggling over whether a turnaround away from polluting industry to a green driven economy will work, while China did it and knows that it not only works, but is also high profitable. It creates those better than gold jobs.
However, as smart and innocent as Wen appeared to be in the interview, and as I found myself agreeing with him on certain assertions about trade, and labor, the mantra going on in my mind was Tibet, Tibet, Tibet. Look what China did and continues to do to those innocent and wonderful people and the pristine land they maintained for centuries high in the Himalayas. China will surely pollute that area too. Fareed addressed Tibetan issues in this interview also and the answer was still pretty hard-line. On top of Tibet, what about China’s attempts to march on Taiwan as it has so many times before?
The interview is a good look at how China thinks. Fareed began the interview with Wen by asking how the Chinese feel about the state of the U.S. economy considering we owe China so much money. It was the million-dollar question over a possible default in payment if things don’t recover quickly here. Wen assured that China has confidence the U.S. will return to prosperity. It wants to help the U.S meet that goal. It looks as if this partnership for clean energy research might just be China’s way of pushing us to that prosperity—for China’s own sake. Make no mistake, China is out for number one always.
Watch some of the interview even though it is not about the environment per se, it is a good snapshot of China, a country we will soon partner with for clean energy research.