Another fine piece, Cicero. And as we've seen over the past 2 weeks, the Chinese government is happy to channel some of that angst into nationalism with a hostile edge.

Winds has covered China's Growing Nationalist Movement - that article also discusses the country's potential futures, and what sorts of questions to ask as we try to predict what's coming next. Simon World contributed some thoughts of his own, too.

See also The Daily Demarche's The China Syndrome - 2015 and Beyond

See http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006232.html#006232 for an interesting story about connecting direct producers of clothing to the consumers via ebay, which cuts out all the middlemen and gets the money straight into the hands of the producers.

One thing this shows rather profoundly is the connection between clean government and a clean environment. China already has plenty of environmental laws and regulations on the books, but they are completely ignored by local officals, who are universally on the take. The culture of Chinese officialdom is such that only corrupt officials rise to positions of responsibility, since the few incorrupt officials are not trusted by their peers (as they may turn in someone in one of China's many anti-corruption purges).

So, the only way to fight this eco-disaster is ultimately to change the culture of Chinese bureaucracy. And that requires a change in the government system itself.

I have written a reponse to this post here on the Gristmill blog.

A clean enviroment only starts to get important to people at a certain level of prosperity. China is reaching this level. This is actually proof that China is growning wealthier. China is in reality also a capitalist society so they will start to clean up a lot sooner than real communist countries as the bureaucracy gets a much smaller cut of the proceeds. I wouldn't be surprised if Beijings air will be breathable by 2008.
Kyoto is a red herring. It mainly deals with CO2 and that is not a pollutant on the local level.

The government quickly labels the protesters as 'agitators.'

Unlike what goverments do in the West. They only insinuate that they are agitators.

One thing that autocratic regimes prove beyond a doubt is that environmentalists are a secret, toothless society under their rule.

Depends on how autocratic the regime is. Everybody was toothless under Stalin including enviromentalists but they did got some traction in Hungary

or Saddam draining the southern marshes of Iraq;

Saddam drained the marshes for a military purpose. Had nothing to do with economic reasons. It would be like claiming that capitalists are anti enviroment because the US used agent orange to deforest Vietnam

Bravo, Praktike.

Yeah Praktike, nice additions.

Foobarista

China already has plenty of environmental laws and regulations on the books, but they are completely ignored by local officals, who are universally on the take.

And you should see their "rights" to freedom of assembly and association !

The soviet consitutuion had its good points too, but in a land of rule by terror, such paper is just propaganda.

Even the name of leftist states are propaganda.

peoples democratic republic of ...

They are not for the people, not democratic and not a republic, do we really expect it to get any better from there ?

You should see how they structure the legalese around the forced labor system, called the laogai.

Most Laogai camps have two names: a public name (usually an enterprise name), and an internal administrative name (usually a number). "Hangzhou Wulin Machine Works," for example, is one of the public names for the Zhejiang Province No. 4 Prison.

The Laogai institution known as laodong jiaoyang, commonly abbreviated as "Laojiao", also serves as a tool for the Chinese Communist Party in its constant efforts to silence critics and punish political criminals without having to bother with investigations and legal proceedings.

A ruse to avoid western regulations against forced slave labor products, and sadly, the west accepts the ruse.

Because placing a person in Laojiao is not a "legal action," but rather an "administrative action," Laojiao camps are therefore not included in any official accounting of the number of prisoners in the Laogai system. By the same logic, those in Laojiao camps are not considered convicted prisoners and, as such, are not covered under international treaties for treatment of prisoners, nor are the goods they are forced to manufacture covered by the bilateral agreements between the American and Chinese governments banning the trade in `forced labor products."

The branch of the loagai system run by the PLA is especially horrific.

The CCP steadfastly refuses to grant the International Committee of the Red Cross access to the camps.

There is little information concerning camps that are run by the PLA. This camp system is highly secretive. Likewise what is known as the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Xinjiang Shengchan Jianshe Bingtuan a quasi-military system of camps with many civilian prisoners. Rather than having a civilian administration, Xinjiang, dubbed an "Autonomous Region" by Beijing, is effectively governed by the PLA.

Poison air, rule by fear, say the wrong thing, and your making plastic trinkets in a laogai forced labor camp.

A regular heaven on earth in the orient, ya just gotta love it.

It also underscores the bravery of those "agitators" hmmm ?

China already has plenty of environmental laws and regulations on the books, but they are completely ignored by local officals, who are universally on the take.

[sarcasme]Thank god this is different in the rest of the world.[/sarcasme]

Why are they not a republic? They are as far as i know not a monarchy (outside North Korea)

Those "agitators" are Chinese middle class. They are not the kind of people you send to prison. (they bribe themself out of jail)

I covered the Huanxi riots with plenty of links and information.

Interestingly in China the State Environemnt Protection Agency (SEPA) is starting to become more assertive in standing up to previously indominable ministries such as Water Resources (dams). In the last two years since the new guard took over SEPA has been given more tools in terms of laws, extra funds and political support in taking on the development ministries. China's leadership is aware of the importance of the environment. At the same time they are even more aware of the importance of spreading the economic boom from the coast to the poorer rural interior, and big infrastructure and development projects are the chosen methods.

I'll expand more on Monday at my site.