On this episode of China Uncensored,
even a war on pollution can have casualties.
Welcome back to China Uncensored,
I'm your host Chris Chappell.
In 2014, China launched a war against pollution.
But it's been tough.
Turns out,
it's much easier to arrest dissidents than smog.
Which is why Beijing police
are now being armed with vacuum cleaners.
Not for the smog.
It's to knock out the dissidents.
Makes it more challenging.
But in terms of pollution,
China has been pushing ahead.
The Chinese Communist Party has said
it wants to be a world leader
in transitioning out of "dirty energy"
and "going green"!
For example,
as Northern China enters a freezing winter,
the Ministry of Environmental Protection
issued a vaguely worded notice to 28 cities
to keep air pollution under control
by speeding up the transition
from coal to natural gas.
Local officials began arresting people
for burning coal.
This propaganda banner literally says,
"Whoever burns coal will be arrested."
Ok, that's a little harsh.
Maybe they could just put coal
in your Christmas stocking as a warning.
Wait, what's that Shelley?
They don't have Christmas stockings in China?
Ok, well never mind then.
Arresting people is obviously the next logical step.
But anyway, it sounds good—
stop people from burning that dirty coal.
After all,
we're talking about pollution that's so bad,
a University of Chicago study found
it takes three years off the average person's life
in Northern China.
And in exchange,
Chinese authorities promised they would transition
everyone to natural gas.
Just one small problem:
In a lot of areas,
authorities didn't get the pipes set up in time.
So when people started getting arrested
for using coal,
they didn't have any alternative.
Well, except to freeze, I guess.
And in places where natural gas was available,
massive shortages made prices skyrocket.
According to Tencent,
"One senior couple secretly burned coal for heat,
and died of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning
due to poor ventilation.
Even in areas where natural gas
and electricity are available,
low-income families complain
that they are too expensive."
Stories of people burning sticks
and corncobs to keep warm
have been going viral on China's internet.
So have photos of children having class
outside in their coats—
because at least you can't be arrested
for letting the sun keep you warm.
For now.
As Bloomberg put it,
all this became "another example of how
China's bureaucracy can sometimes subordinate
common sense to centrally mandated goals."
Mmm, the success of central planning.
Here's how it works in China:
the central government issues
a high-level policy directive,
like reducing the number of coal-burning households
by 1.8 million in Hebei province.
They don't care how officials in Hebei do it,
as long as it gets done.
And since whether you meet
the central government's goals
is tied closely to whether you get promoted,
local officials are motivated to do anything they can
to meet the numbers.
As one official put it,
local officials also don't want to get blamed
for not meeting the target.
Yes, fear is a powerful motivator.
And sometimes officials get too motivated.
Like in Hebei,
where they decided to reduce the number of
coal-burning households by 2.3 million
instead of 1.8 million.
Exceeding expectations!
By leaving people with no heat
and triggering a natural gas shortage.
The worst part, though,
is that they made the central government look bad.
So now the Hebei officials have been trotted out to,
guess what,
take the blame.
What a backfire.
Sadly, that's the only kind of fire
that won't keep you warm.
Let's just hope it doesn't also backfire
for Apple CEO Tim cook.
While he was in China this month,
he said, "China's environmental leadership is very clear,
and it aligns completely with Apple's values,"
Sounds like Apple's values might be a tad rotten.
Oh, and another thing.
Most of China's coal pollution doesn't even
come from individuals burning coal in their homes
to keep warm.
It mostly comes from power plants and factories.
And it just so happens that more than 70% of factories
don't meet China's air pollution standards.
But instead of installing better pollution controls,
factories have also been told to reduce
or stop burning coal.
So that also means a lot of factories
have had to shut down or slow production.
This has had a devastating effect on the economy.
And worst of all,
the shutdown of some chemical factories
means they don't have what they need
to make Spandex.
One industry executive even warned,
"Spandex will be tight."
I see what you did there.
How could there be such a big screw up?
Well, in addition to the inefficiency
of top-down directives,
part of the reasons is that estimates
for how much natural gas was needed
were way off.
That's because the Chinese regime
routinely lies about GDP figures.
There was, "a slump in growth from 2012–2016
that went unrecognized in official GDP statistics
and may have contributed to planners'
miscalculation of how much coal
would need to be substituted by gas."
Ok, so maybe flat out lying about your GDP
has real-world consequences.
Now not to worry.
The Chinese Communist Party has decided
to show its benevolence,
and is no longer requiring people
to freeze to death to meet pollution standards.
In a "double urgent" letter,
"the Ministry of Environmental Protection told authorities
in 28 cities to relax the coal ban at places."
It reminded officials that they should
"continue to ensure that the number one principle
should be keeping people warm in winter."
An important clarification.
Unfortunately, there's no word yet
on whether spandex production
has been restored
So what do you think of the ban,
and then, un-ban of coal?
Leave your comments below.
Thanks for watching this episode of China Uncensored.
Once again I'm your host Chris Chappell.
See you next time.
You know, I think spandex would look good on you.
You know what else would?
The Truth.
Head over to ChinaUncensored.tv
where you can see full half hour episode
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