The Times of India SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2002
UNDP urges political reform in China AFP BEIJING: A scathing UN-sponsored report published Friday urged the Chinese government to implement political reforms if it is to head off a mounting environment catastrophe as well as growing social unrest. The China Human Development Report 2002, unveiled in Beijing, was produced by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program. It spells out a dismal environmental situation in China, exacerbated by huge population pressures, land and resource scarcities, worsening pollution, increased urbanization and uncertain food and water supplies. "Environmental degradation has now become so acute that it is one of the main factors forcing future multi-faceted change," the report warned. "Indeed, environmental factors are likely to constrain, or even reverse, social and economic progress." The report calls on China's government to use its centralized political system to adopt "green" development strategies that are both economically and environmentally sustainable. "The situation in terms of the environment will continue to get worse for a while, before it could turn better," said the SEI's Karl Hallding, lead author of the report. "The next five years will be a critical juncture for China to make choices for a yet more reform-oriented path... and towards good governance," he said. "The critical issue is to bend the curve to go up to a better future." China must abandon its 20-year developmental strategy of "getting rich fast and cleaning up later," and an over-reliance on planned economic methods that breed inefficiencies by setting production quotas and price levels, the report said. The minority elite that has benefited most from 20 years of market-driven reforms should also not be allowed to use their "strong influence" with the central government to thwart sustainable environmental strategies. China must additionally make a further shift "towards stronger market-based governance", in order to introduce sustainable development, the authors said. Good governance would come mainly through broader participation in the political decision-making process, increased press freedom and the right to organize non-governmental organizations (NGOs), it said. "It is safe to assert that the heavy top-down governance structure that prevailed through the first half-century of the People's Republic by and large has proven counterproductive to sustainable development." Although attempts had been made to establish the rule of law and decentralize powers, China in the 21st century continued to be ruled by a millennium-old "deeply stratified form of bureaucratic governance," it said. Failure to deepen reform would lead to a scenario where "the political climate remains unresponsive to public debate, and there are no alternative channels for people to express their concerns," it said. Under such a "perilous" scenario, "signs of political and social instability increase to near crisis conditions by 2050," the authors warned. Copyright � 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
