- In the past year, China's Ministry of Environment has sent inspectors to 10 provinces, where they've reprimanded, fined, or charged officials in more than 80,000 factories with criminal offenses. Entire swaths of Eastern China have halted production, prompting some companies to move entire supply chains to countries like India and Bangladesh to meet their orders.
"It's a huge event. It's a serious event. I think many of us here believe it will become the new normal," says Michael Crotty, president of MKT & Associates, a company that exports textiles from China. Crotty says in his nearly two decades in China, he's never seen a crackdown of this magnitude. "The consumers of China don't want red and blue rivers. They don't want to see gray skies every day."
Right? The Chinese are incapable of doing good. </s>
I ascribe malice to all government actors, not just the Chinese. Cynical, sure. Cynical to the point of near-stupidity, probably, and I admit that. I have not yet found a way to temper my disgust into something workable, like voting Democrat. Racist, nope. Definitely not.
Outsourcing to India and Bangledesh is akin to sweeping the problem under a rug. Since global demand will generally increase as Africa ramps up its consumerism, we can only hope that some mix of technology and regulation curbs the pollution. But I'm not so hopeful. "Oh, boo hoo", right? Right.They don't want to see gray skies every day
I think China is following in the footsteps of America/Europe. Now that their manufacturing is up to pace, they can finally start worrying about the environment. Where before, regulations might have slowed down the pace of growth. I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Maybe countries like India will follow. They have their own environmental/health initiatives that they're working on, like eliminating open air defecation.
This. Absolutely this. It is not just in manufacturing. China started banning import of waste products as well.