Leaving Shanghai pollution behind me - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

I will never set up a company in Shanghai again, promises serial entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs, after he had a look at the polluted Shanghai sky from his apartment. Van der Chijs can move his online ventures, but where should he go to, he wonders on his weblog.

Shanghai Sky (@marcvanderchijs)

Marc van der Chijs:

If you live in Shanghai you know that this is not one of the healthiest cities in the world to live in. Not only does work go on 24/7 here (well, at least when you run your own business), but also the air quality is quite bad. It’s actually so bad that it’s very likely that unitedstyles will be the last company that I set up in China, and that I will eventually move somewhere else. I am sure I will be in China regularly for my investments and other business related issues, but at least I want my family out of here. 

Nobody really knows how bad the pollution is, because the government data seems to be “adjusted” and data for PM2.5 (the smallest, most dangerous, particles) are not released. For sure downtown it’s much worse than out in the suburbs where I live and where unitedstyles has its office. But also there it can’t be too good. I hardly ever run outside where I live, for example, because I feel the air does more harm than sports does good. And if I do, like during the Shanghai marathon, I normally feel it in my throat for several days after the run.

More at Marc van der Chijs' weblog.

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

More on Marc van der Chijs and his online businesses at Storify.

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Local governments more eager to clean up their pollution - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Protests and other bad public relations force local governments increasingly to clean up sources of pollution, writes energy expert Bill Dodson in his cleantech website.  Foreign companies have here great opportunities when they play their cards right.

Bill Dodson:

During mid-2011 the central government designated 4.75 billion yuan (about US$700 million) in subsidies to establish 100 counties as green energy demonstration zones during 2011-15. By 2008 the government had already identified 50 national sustainable development experimental areas and over 100 provincial sustainable development experimental areas. Commensurate with the status is the extent to which cleantech production in the areas is actually “clean”; that is, in which any toxic waste production created is adequately recycled and managed. 

If the waste must be stored, citizens are increasingly holding local authorities responsible for ensuring storage is safe and secure from leakage into surrounding soil and water sources. The most prominent experimental areas have been working to make themselves centers of excellence in cleantech production, and polishing green environment badges of honor... 

Foreign investors that apply their waste disposal or recycling technologies to bear in these designated areas may be able to kick-start their operations in China more quickly than if they randomly target potential buyers throughout the country. Chinese operations are under duress to invest in state-of-the art waste management technologies only to the extent their local governments feel the heat of higher-level officialdom; or, less often, to the extent to which the companies want to develop global brands that differentiate them from the pack in China. 

Global branding of cleantech requires the image of end-to-end application of maintaining environmental integrity in the manufacture of their products. Most Chinese companies, however, still see investments in proper waste disposal or recycling as a balance sheet liability they would prefer to leave to future generations to pay. Foreign suppliers who have local governments on their side find it easier to persuade such companies to adopt more efficient and effective waste management technologies.

Much more at the China Energy sector.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

More on Bill Dodson and doing business in China at Storify.

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Poor health care and education force rich to emigrate - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

China's super rich massively try to get foreign passports, but it is not because of fear for government interference, discovered business analyst Shaun Rein in 36 interviews. China's rich go abroad because of the poor health care and poor education, he writes in CNCB.

The two main reasons wealthy Chinese took foreign passports were for education and health care reasons. Having foreign passports made it easier to secure visas to seek medical care. 

Some families reported wanting to send children to international schools in China, an option off limits to Chinese passport holders. China’s weak education system made some families want to send kids abroad to study... 

Severe pollution and a stressful life were two other reasons why wealthy Chinese migrated or were thinking about it. One wealthy Beijing women named Mrs. Wang said, “I am so worried about my son’s health.  Rashes cover his face because of pollution.  We are considering moving to America or Canada while keeping our business in China.  Three million dollars only buys tiny apartments in Shanghai but mansions in North America.”

 More in CNBC Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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"Where were the guys at Mattel?" - Bill Fischer

Bill Fischer

Blaming China for anything that goes wrong has become fashionable, writes IMD-professor and Chinabiz Speaker Bill Fischer in his latest column for Chinabiz.

... where were the guys at Mattel or the dog food companies when these products were being accepted for sales in foreign markets? Were they asleep? Are they not getting paid for doing a job that they didn't do? If you want to outsource anywhere, you need to be vigilant in ways and places that you didn't have to be before. And, if you can't do that, then it's not China's fault, it's yours!

How an academic gets himself in trouble

Always on the outlook for interesting Chinese speakers for Chinabiz Speakers on hot topics like the environment, I stumbled upon this dispatch by Beijing Newspeak. It found an article in the unlinkable South China Morning Post quoting Zheng Binghui, director of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.
Zheng spoke in English at an international meeting in Wuhan and details how strongly polluted China's water resources are. The SCMP:

Dr Zheng said nearly half of all urban drinking water sources failed to meet national standards in 1981, and, in 1998, the failure rate was more than 83 per cent, according to studies carried out by his institute.
Their latest survey suggests more than 450 drinking water sources in key national environmental protection cities could not meet the standards, a number six times higher than the official figure. But these results have not been made available to the mainland public.
“If we release these figures to the public, there will be total havoc … The figures we reported to the central government are classified,” he said. “There is only one correct figure you and Xinhua can report, and that is the official figure.”

That is the kind of speakers we want to have, but something tells me that Zheng might not be available for a while.

Ministry uses TV-show to save energy

vice-premier Zeng Peiyan

The failure of China to reduce energy usage and reduce polutions was illustrated this weekend again when hapless authorities turned to a TV-show to urge the masses to reduce their energy consumption. The China Daily:

Chinese vice premier Zeng Peiyan on Saturday called on ordinary people to help save energy and reduce pollution.
"Energy conservation and pollution reduction are related to the sustainable development of the whole society and economy, as well as the interests of the broad masses," Zeng told the opening ceremony of a nationwide campaign in Beijing.

While the campaign involves at least 17 government departments, it looks mainly like a display of dispair and hollow propaganda, as real measures like the increase of energy prices is politically not achievable.

Wuxi residents flee water crisis

More pictures here

Wuxi residents have started to flee their city because of an ongoing water crisis and a part of them is entering Shanghai to stay with their relatives. The Taihu lake that should provide the city with drinking water has been hit by algae, caused by a combination of pollution, lack of water and the higher temperatures. More cities depending on the Taihu lake, like Suzhou have not yet been affected.
Part of the water supply has already been halted at May 22, but the crisis seems to be far from over.
Chinese media focus on the positive side, supermarkets bringing in emergency supplies of water to their stores and plans to divert water from the Yangtze river. More details at the website of CCTV.

Update I: Foreign media have been pretty late in recognizing the severity of this environmental crisis. This report from Reuters is the first one I just saw and depends mostly on Chinese media.

Update II: Danwei summerizes the fallout at the internet.