From Chinese Press

Bad way to deal with pollution

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-30 07:54

Was the Zijin Mining Group's pollution incident manipulated by power? An article on Youth Times asks this question. Excerpts:

Ten days after Zijin Mining Group Co. was found to have contaminated the Tinjiang River with toxic waste in Fujian province, the local authorities declared it was safe to use its water for human consumption (after proper treatment, of course). The move came after officials and people responsible for the contamination were reportedly punished.

The decision to declare the Tinjiang River water safe saw the shares of the Zijin Mining Group, China's largest producer of gold, rise sharply. It had dipped by as much as 11 percent after the incident came to light. Some media outlets say a complicated network of power was at play behind the decision.

Zijin is the main local enterprise and contributes a lot to the local GDP. Its biggest shareholder is a company representing the State Assets Administration Committee in Shanghang county, Fujian province. And quite a few local officials hold the company's stocks. Therefore, power could easily have been used to manipulate the way the pollution case was handled.

In fact, the officials who have been punished are not those actually in charge of the mining operations and effluent treatment. The deputy magistrate who disposed of the case took over office just a few months ago, and might not have been familiar with the local situation at all. The so-called punishment seems more like an exercise to find a scapegoat. Some people even wonder whether the officials who have been punished would soon be reinstated or shifted to another place.

Such a farce is not uncommon in the country. Without strong public supervision, unfettered power can easily be used to help big companies, and could lead to the overextension of capital and even endanger the environment and other people's interests. What's worse is that if serious pollution incidents are handled this way, the authorities can hardly prevent them from recurring.

(China Daily 07/30/2010 page9)