After three decades of economic reform, beginning in 1978, China has transformed itself from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. During this period (1978–2007), the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in China was maintained at an average of 9.8 per cent annually—3.7 percentage points higher than that of the pre-reform period (1952–78) under the centrally planned regime.
However, a report by the World Bank that targets China's policy towards industrial pollution stated that "hundreds of thousands of premature deaths and incidents of serious respiratory illness [have been] caused by exposure to industrial air pollution. Many of China's waterways have been seriously contaminated by industrial discharges which causes it to be largely unfit for direct human use.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Health, industrial pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death.
1) Every year, ambient air pollution alone killed hundreds of thousands of citizens.
2) 500 million people in China are without safe and clean drinking water.
3) Only 1% of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union, because all of its major cities are constantly covered in a "toxic gray shroud".
4)Lead poisoning or other types of local pollution continue to kill many Chinese children.
5)A large section of the ocean is without marine life because of massive algal blooms caused by the high nutrients in the water.
6)The pollution has spread internationally: sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides fall as acid rain on Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo; and according to the Journal of Geophysical Research, the pollution even reaches Los Angeles in the USA.
7)The Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning in 2003 had an internal and unpublished report which estimated that 300,000 people die each year from ambient air pollution, mostly of heart disease and lung cancer.
8) Chinese environmental experts in 2005 issued another report, estimating that annual premature deaths attributable to outdoor air pollution were likely to reach 380,000 in 2010 and 550,000 in 2020.
Reflection: I feel that China should choose to reduce the pollution due to industrialization over the pursuit of higher economic growth. The pollution has resulted in many negative health impact on the chinese citizens. Personally, I feel that health is more important than money. Money cannot buy health despite having the ability to have the best medical system. Money is earned through hard work. Hence, if our health is affected, how would we be able to concentrate on our work to bring the money back home? Moreover, once we lose our health, we are unable to get it back but when we lose money, we are able to earn it back when we have the health. Therefore it is important that we remain healthy so China should try to stop the pollution so as to not affect the citizen's health any further.
"Money can pay fees at the hospital but it can't buy you health."
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