LegendaryLife.com Blog

No matter your opinion on China, you have to admire their ability to swiftly and systematically deal with problem, even though the steps taken are sometimes deeply misguided. Here are a few examples:

Chinas One Child Policy

Back in 1979, China realized that with a population exceeding a billion people, they where in for some huge problems in the future if they didn’t enforce some sort of birth controls. Rightly or wrongly, China became overly aggressive in it’s “One Child Policy”. From giving new moms forced sterilizations at hospitals once they gave birth without asking for consent to introducing astronomical fines onto families who could barely afford to feed their family. Fair, no. Better alternatives? Yes, but this is by far the most efficient manner of controlling a population growth curve. The results? Based on their own numbers, they have prevented over 300 million new mouths to feed.

Chinas Execution of Chef

For many years, China has had an aggressive anti-corruption policy with it’s officials. If you take bribes or cause harm to others without party approval then expect your head to be on the chopping block once you’re found out. This policy has affected mayors of some of the biggest mega-cities in China and now, the head of the agency responsible for making sure products produced in China are safe. Mr. Zheng Xiaoyu, 62 was convicted to death for taking over 850 thousand dollars in bribes from 8 companies so that their defective products could make it to market. He had one appeal which failed which means he is already history. The results? Government officials will think twice before screwing their own citizens.

Chinas Pollution Problem

Athens had a major pollution hurdle to overcome before being allowed to host the Olympics but that was nothing compared to what China is facing now. Although they have among the toughest pollution policies of any government, they fail terribly in the area of enforcement. It’s no secret that China has become the factory for the world, they easily out-compete Mexicans, Americans and just about every other nation on Earth. I met a backpacker a few weeks ago that spent a month in Beijing and you know what they told me? They said they hadn’t seen the sun for a month! No, the weather wasn’t bad, it was simply the pollution was so great it was literally blocking out the sun! Chinas solution? Close all the factories during the Olympics and relocate major pollution creators outside of the city! I am sure they are paying a little more attention to the laws on the books as well but when just about all your power comes from coal and the government owns the largest tobacco company in the world, I am not keeping my hopes up.

What does all this mean?

Well, pollution, forced sterilization and defective products allowed onto the marketplace may seem like three separate problems but they are all related. It’s called Health! I believe China is in for a HUGE crunch to say the least in the very near future. As the life expectancy of its citizens drops due to environmental contamination without a new generation to take care of them, how will it solve this mother of all problems? I believe over the next two decade, China will have no choice but become the healthiest nation on Earth via fines, forced exercise regimens and killing bad habits. You are slowly seeing this take shape in North American and Europe but China will have to do a real 180 when it comes to health for its own sake, being communist, they can move extremely quickly in this positive direction. You cannot have an unhealthy army without loosing influences, you cannot have sick farmers producing good products from a contaminated environment and you cannot have efficient citizenry when they are constantly calling in sick.

The Bottom Line

With all its problems, China will either have to make health priority number one or perish.

Buzzvia
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B10BF52B-2382-4F60-AD91-060A67FA3BC8.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/10/china.execution.reut/index.html