Chinese Gov. Strong On Promises Of "Beautiful China", But NPC Delegates Boo, Activists Scoff
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"They always speak eloquently about how the environment should be protected," said Li Bo, head of the Beijing-based environmental NGO Friends of Nature. "But as soon as there is an issue dealing with whether to protect the environment or give the go-ahead to a specific development project, the development initiative wins." Popular anger about China's poor environmental record has reached fever pitch within the past few months. Beijing spent much of this winter smothered in record levels of smog.
Authorities recently revealed that the country's soil pollution levels are classified as a state secret, and more than 13,000 rotting pig carcasses were discovered last week in a river that cuts through Shanghai and supplies tap water to more than a fifth of its people.
This weekend, almost a third of delegates to the NPC refused to rubber-stamp a fresh batch of environmental committee appointments, suggesting that the issue has become as unbearable among some government officials as it has among ordinary people.
Out of 2,944 delegates, 850 voted against the new lineup of the congress's environmental protection and resources conservation committee; another 125 abstained. According to the South China Morning Post, the delegates "greeted the result with a long boo". Zhou Shengxian was re-elected as the minister of environmental protection after spending five years in the position.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/18/campaigners-sceptical-china-environment-changes