Environmental Protection in China

Regardless of the different levels of development that exist from country to country, each one has its own environmental problems. Developed countries face various environmental difficulties caused by their high-level development, while more backward countries encounter different environmental problems which may be due to their lack of development. It is thus the case that environmental protection is a great challenge to practically all mankind. China is a developing country, with a relatively lowlevel economy and technology. She is striving to develop her economy, aiming at modernizing her industry, agriculture, science, and technology, and also her national defence, by the end of the present century. As is well known, China was formerly a quasi-feudalistic, quasi-colonial country, with a very backward economy and a huge population struggling at near-starvation level. Subsequent to the creation of the new China, attending to its war wounds while recovering and developing its economy, much improvement in the living standard was achieved. Gauged by the internationally popular viewpoint that poverty is the biggest 'environmental' problem which most developing countries face, the environmental situation in China has indeed changed greatly during the last thirty years. In a country of one thousand million people, to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, education, and medical care, is certainly not an easy task. The living standard is generally still low, and there is a long way to go in other respects.