Western polluters are free riders in China

Just two days after US President Barack Obama called China a free rider in an interview with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, US Secretary of State John Kerry, in his Asia policy speech at the East West Center in Hawaii last Wednesday, listed climate change a common cause for the two largest greenhouse gas emitters on the planet.

That is indeed true. Although China's per capita carbon emission last year was less than that in Europe and only about one-third the level of the United States, its environmental challenge as evidenced by the worsening pollution in air, water and soil has become ever more serious.

However, as some Americans tout the fact that the US has pumped less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than years ago, they ignore the fact that a large portion of the greenhouse gases produced in China and other pollutions are a result of China being the manufacturer of the world.