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E-mail a friendYOUNG VOICES
As Beijing '08 Approaches, A Question of Accountability
In Tiananmen Square, people celebrate the one year countdown to the Olympics.
The dancers sprang and pivoted, their brightly colored silks shimmering under stadium lights, as China celebrated the beginning of its one-year countdown to the Beijing Olympics. Held in Tiananmen Square, the festivities underscored the emergence of China in the 21st century as a bold, dynamic nation, with high aspirations for the future.
In the midst of these celebrations, however, elsewhere in the world, reports were emerging of the confirmed extinction of the baiji, or Yangtze River dolphin. After a six-week survey, an international team of scientists reported that it is unlikely there are any surviving members of this rare species, revered in Chinese mythology and unique to the region.
Although reported in decline since the 1980s, and officially a protected species in China, baiji continued to fall victim to China's rapid expansion, as increased shipping disrupted their habitat, and illegal fishing further devastated their numbers. Scientists and conservationists argued for decades over the best way to save the species, but were aided little by the Chinese government, who as recently as 2005 proposed expanding shipping lanes through a protected dolphin habitat. Ultimately, as today's report proves, no one was able to save the baiji from their collision course with The Chinese Century.
As China prepares to play host to the rest of the world, bulldozing its slums and westernizing its toilets, criticism of its shortfalls in protecting the environment seems to be meeting with characteristic indifference. Ecological disasters like the extinction of the baiji fall into place alongside continued human rights violations and support for Sudan's corrupt regime, all suggesting that the future into which China so rapidly hurtles is an uncertain one. As proven in their response to the recent outcry over contaminated Chinese food ingredients, China seems only ready to take serious action when its bottom line is threatened. Genocide in Sudan and environmental destruction in its own back yard, for now, appear to pose not enough of a problem to warrant a serious response.
The argument has been made, with some fairness, that China is merely suffering the growing pains of industrialization, and can't yet be held to the same standards of other fully industrialized nations. At the breakneck speed that they're growing, however, the margin for error is tiny, and as the rapid disappearance of the baiji shows us, hesitation on environmental issues such as this have serious consequences.
The 2008 Olympics will be a sort of coming out party for this billion-strong nation, and with its preparations in full swing, we can't help but wonder what kind of superpower it will emerge to be. With the long list of endangered species within its borders now slightly shorter, China's present distaste for accountability is a cause for grave concern.