China Gets Tough on Auto Emissions, Ceases Production of 500+ Car Models
I know there are people who doubt China’s sincerity when it comes to environmental issues. Why the huge investment in renewable energy? Why the abrupt elimination of more than 500 models of cars that have poor emissions profiles from their factories and roads?
If you’re looking for answers to this one, the only one you’re going to find here is this photo, taken from the article linked above in the New York Times, the caption for which reads: “Smog on a main thoroughfare in Harbin, China, in November. Officials are under intense pressure to rein in dangerous air pollution.”
Craig,
There’s no doubt many Chinese politicians and officials are sincerely concerned and working to lessen the PRC’s air pollution problem’s and implement improved policies.
However, only the most gullible Sino-phile would trust PRC official announcements as always objective, truthful or accurate.
Information from the PRC is always a form of propaganda. That’s why the PRC employs over a million censors and “information’ officers. The hidden objectives and interpretation often lead to misunderstandings by Western journalists not familiar with the always complex and byzantine nature of PRC officialdom.
PRC diplomats are often surprised at the nativity of Western Sinophiles and their eagerness to believe and exaggerate the veracity of PRC claims.
“Remember my son, and always be aware the greatest of all a Dragon’s weapons is not the talon or the abilty to breathe fire, or the thickness of the great serpent’s armoured scales, but the deceitful tongue !
A Dragon can enchant, enthrall and bind the strongest knight to forget his purpose and lose his very soul ”
[excerpt from the writings of Sir Walter Scott featuring advice given to the Arthurian Knight Tristan,. It’s claimed Sir Walter Scott writings inspired Lord Elgin’s policies while successfully leading the combined British and French forces during the Second Anglo-Chinese War 1856 to 1860 ].
This, from the linked article, is interesting…
“’They’re sending a signal to everybody — that this is for real,’ said Michael Dunne, president of Dunne Automotive, a Hong Kong-based consultancy on China’s clean car market. ‘This shows their emissions standards have teeth.'”
The Chinese government has already become the world’s biggest supporter of electric cars, offering automakers numerous incentives for producing so-called new energy vehicles. Those incentives are set to decrease by 2020, to be replaced by quotas for the number of clean cars automakers must sell. That has spurred global automakers to pick up the pace in their shift toward battery-powered cars.”
Cameron,
Ah, there speaks the optimistic acolyte !
Born from self loathing of everything American, there will always be Americans eager to believe all pronouncements from the middle kingdom must be authentic ! ( after all, Micheal Dunne says so )
Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth. The PRC government accepts the reality of perhaps by 2020 1 % of vehicles sold can be electric. Why is it so hard for advocates to accept the problem is ESD ?
Perhaps if these ardent Sinophiles could get out and actually buy an EV themselves, there optimism may be more credible.
mp – your repeated accusations, that we who disagree with you must hate our country and our people, have long grown quite wearisome.
Unlike many of my fellow citizens, who puff their chests and spout an empty and vacuous patriotism that sacrifices the good of the nation and its people upon the alter of greed, I share the perspective of a great many more of us, who love our nation deeply and truly.
We do not love our country blindly, ignoring or excusing our many faults and failings, but instead with deep respect for the progress we have made and are making together, and the potential and prospect of personal liberty and social justice that we have long held out to the world – not to mention the incredible beauty of the remaining unspoiled landscapes, and the richness and abundance of the natural resources and environmental services.
Cameron,
I agree blind and unreasoning patriotism is often used as a excuse an excuse for xenophobia and a justification for acts of intolerance, aggression and rejection of new ideas.
However, the converse is also true. There are always those who hide envy and spite born from personal inadequacies and failures behind a mask of noble sentiments and admiration for foreign ideologies espoused by rivals, even enemies, of their own nation and society.
The left has a long history of regurgitating enemy propaganda without criticism, while mouthing noble sounding platitudes.
Curiously, the one common factor of all socialist states has been the marked absence of “personal liberties and social justice”, while destruction of “unspoiled landscapes and abundance of the natural resources and environmental services ” occurred on a scale unparalleled in human history !.
Parroting “mom and apple pie” sentiments and empty sanctimony doesn’t help the environment. Nor can any government do it all for you. It’s no value berating your government for not squandering public money extracted from your fellow citizens implementing vast,impractical and often unworkable schemes, while you revile oil companies etc, even as you enjoy the benefits their products provide.
The answer doesn’t reside with admiring the propaganda released by the official organs of the totalitarian PRC government, but in supporting the myriad of modest, non disruptive technologies being evolved by the creative genius of Western industrialized societies.
Every consumer has a personal choice. That’s the essence of freedom. Governments can’t adequately replace the responsibility of personal choice. In the end, it’s up to you.
I trust that we shant all fall victim to the propaganda of those who errantly refer to Nazis and Stalinists as socialists.