You are all missing the point, China is in a construction boom, construction is the best way to achieve double digit GDP growth, construction and sale of apartments and houses also lines the pockets of the Party
But of course all of the comments so far have been about the environment, the Chinese do not give 2 shits about pollution and sustainability, the motive is clear
KEEP THE PARTY IN CONTROL AT ALL COSTS
Oh I'm glad there is now a spokemen for "The Chinese People". Didn't realise you had a single voice, who frequented HN.
In all seriousness, some tips:
- Stop being racist
- go and learn a little bit about Chinese political landscape, and modern history
- Reduce your ignorance.
The Chinese (government) care greatly about the environment and the people, and that is why they have year-on-year improved hundreds of millions of lives in both health and wealth for the past 60 years.
Yes, they are a 1 party communist political system... but so what, judge by action, not ideology.
Don't mind Volpe, he calls everyone who talks about China a racist. Its his way of being friendly on hackernews.
Parent is wrong though, the CCP most definitely cares about the environment; it has gotten so bad that they are in crisis mode right now. Xi just made a speech about it this weekend, the gov is taking it very seriously and people do care, especially here in Beijing.
Corruption, economy, and pollution (include food safety) are the biggest threats to the CCP's grip on power.
I was talking about the Chinese government, if its people do care about the environment but try to do something about it they would get labelled as dissidents and prosecuted. Thats what you get for living in an authoritarian state keeping its people under thumb in order to further the party
And stop with the "racist" crap, in light of news of widespread NSA surveilance and changes over last year the USA ain that far behind.
It didnt take long for members of the Ministry of Truth to popup and try to "reeducate" readers regarding my earlier comments.
> in light of news of widespread NSA surveilance and changes over last year the USA ain that far behind.
Oh I see, so we can just generalise about any country because the US is doing horrible things.
> It didnt take long for members of the Ministry of Truth to popup and try to "reeducate" readers regarding my earlier comments.
More wumao bullshit. Just because someone doesn't buy into the US constructed narrative of "US is good, cares about it's people and the environment, China is evil and just wants to control the world" they have to be Chinese shills...
How about showing me some data that proves I'm wrong?
I never made such an argument, you are the one building strawmen and going off on a tangent trying to deflect from my point which hits the bullsye
The "Party" (calling them Communist is a bit of a joke by now) only cares about its own survival and continuing grip on power and control of 1/6th of the worlds population.
You do realize that Chinese is not even an ethnicity right? I mean, you have Kazakhs, Uighurs, Tibetans, Mongolians, Koreans and even some Russians who all are born in China and have Chinese citizenship.
Saying "the Chinese think blah" is the same as saying "the Americans think blah". So stop with the racist crap.
If he said "the Han do no care about pollution or the environment" then fine, you'd have a great point.
So blacks/whites are in the same boat? Could never be used to say anything racist because multiple ethnicities exist within those categories... riiiiight.
While I would word things more carefully, I somewhat agree with you. Talking to people in Beijing, both laowai and Chinese, it seems that the economical growth of China is the main power base of the party. As long as living standards keep improving, people are generally happy with the way things are run. This is of course a somewhat dangerous state of affairs, since double-digit growth numbers are never sustainable in the long run. To my outsider's eyes, this plan looks like an attempt at keeping the economical boom going, and in the process ensure the party's survival.
The pollution in Beijing was really bad this winter, its not something that the government can ignore anymore. We will definitely see some changes next year, its only matter if they go far enough.
But of course all of the comments so far have been about the environment, the Chinese do not give 2 shits about pollution and sustainability, the motive is clear KEEP THE PARTY IN CONTROL AT ALL COSTS