Local officials who pursue economic growth at the price of the environment should be sacked, says an editorial in Workers' Daily. The following is an excerpt:

After the State Environmental Protection Administration finished its inspection of 126 industrial parks in 11 provinces, 110 (87 percent) of them were found to have violated environmental protocols.

A reporter with the Xinhua News Agency said local governments had chased economic growth without any regard for national policies and regulations on energy saving and pollution reduction. Hence, the growth they achieved came at the cost of the environment. It not only hurts the legacy of our ancestors but also damages the life of future generations.

Surely local officials are aware of this, but they choose to ignore it, because they expect more individual gain from the promotion they might win for achieving high economic growth.

The calculation of green GDP, a figure that deducts environmental costs from economic growth, has been deferred indefinitely. And one of the most important factors for the delay is believed to be pressure from local governments.

In the 1990s, the World Bank estimated China lost 5 to 7 percent of its annual GDP to environmental deterioration. A more recent report said several provinces would actually have negative GDP growth if the cost to the environment were taken into account.

Even if these numbers fail to tell the whole story, they are still shocking enough.

The balance between economic growth and environmental protection should be carefully maintained.

The central government has been making an all-out effort to develop the economy in a sustainable way. Officials who disregard that should not be allowed to stay in office. Maybe then they will realize the importance of the environment.

(China Daily 08/16/2007 page10)