It is my job to follow closely what the mainstream international media report about China. These days, it has become ever more time-consuming as the number of stories and news multiply along with its continuous economic growth.
Many of the recent headlines about China have been very upsetting, naturally, as they touch upon the serious problems we are grappling with, from environmental degradation to food and toys safety.
Some reports have blown the single digit percentage of substandard Made-in-China products way out of proportion, while failing to point out the main culprits - such as toy designs - that cause potential harm to children and other consumers.
Some continue to cast doubts on China's resolve to upgrade its safety and quality standards while neglecting the fact some countries have applied harsher standards for Made-in-China products. A few others have simply let slip their deep prejudice against the Chinese. It is difficult to detect journalistic objectivity in some articles.
Amid all the bombardments, we have to realize most of the problems are still ours and that we Chinese have to deal with the issues squarely and mostly on our own. Those who shout the loudest or even slander may not be the ones who are willing to help. Chinese businesses have encountered difficulties in purchasing clean production technologies.
Meanwhile, state-of-the-art science and technology has placed China under the watchful eyes of the world while we are trying to develop and improve the lives of millions who still live under $2 per day.
The developed countries once transported their share of excessive waste to developing countries and contributed to their emissions largely undetected.
But in our drive to further alleviate more people out of poverty, satellite images reveal clearly how much CO2 we are emitting today even though the average Chinese still contributes only one-fourth of greenhouse gases than their American counterparts.
We cannot point the finger at others, for the simple reason that the serious water, soil and environmental pollution that China is sustaining today should force us to act immediately to find ways out of the vicious cycle of economic growth and ecological deprivation.
As Pan Yue, one of China's environmental protection chiefs, puts it, "environmental problems are very pressing ones and we cannot afford to wait for the problems to be settled, because involved are the country's stability, the harmony of the Chinese society, the nation's sustainable development and people's health".
It is a little heartening that there are overseas researchers and journalists who are looking at China with less-tainted glasses and who thus get to know more of what we Chinese are trying to do to cope with the grave challenges in our pursuit for development.
Writing last week from Dalian, the port city in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, Thomas Friedman, for one, rightly pointed out that China has been very much focused on its domestic problems.
On Tuesday, an Australian researcher came to my office to tell me that he is going to write an article about his discovery of a few Chinese scientists' endeavor at "leapfrogging mistaken strategies" to address environmental as well as economic issues.
But we must acquire the sense of urgency today. We should stop complaining about some Western countries erecting technical barriers to start our own quest for various innovative solutions from energy efficiency, clean production technology to green economic policies.
As Deng Xiaoping once said, "we should manage our own affairs well".
E-mail:lixing@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 09/20/2007 page10)
