I was looking at back issues of the China Daily–state-run since 1981–and saw an article mentioning globalization in December 2007. China’s efforts to make globalization green focuses more on the effects of Chinese importation of resources from less-developed countries (LDC) than on the developed world’s effects on China’s environment. This article discussed the role of the Global Environmental Institute (GEI) being “a key presence behind the scenes of the drafting of the overseas forestry management guidelines.” The China Daily article cited GEI’s executive director, Jin Jiamen, who we are also meeting with on the 6th in Beijing.

This article talked about China’s impact on the LDC which it is trading with, and China’s use of the LDC’s environment as a pollution “sink”. This is the way that the United States treats China’s environment currently, but it is a mark of industrialization for China to be treating others that way. Terrible that, in order to be industrialized, it seems countries have to use a “dump” in this way. Says the article, in Chinese newspaper language, “In globalization, there are always late-comers who step in to fill vacancies once the early birds leave the woods for a better habitat.” The article goes on to call for China to “change it’s pattern of development” to be more sustainable.

The China Daily goes on to explain the idea of a sink, “In other words, many end-consumers of the raw materials are not in China. Yet China takes the heat for using resources at the expense of other countries’ environments.” This is similar to the way that kids in the U.S. are using plush toys from fast food chains made in China.