OPINION> You Nuo
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OPINION> You Nuo
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A lonesome but worthy path we take
By You Nuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-29 07:30
As all parties are helplessly locked in the old politics-as-usual and business-as-usual games, they don't like to pay attention to the inconvenient truth of the shared destiny of the mankind - even if they agree to recognize some technical features of the climate change. Okay, the ice can melt in the Arctic, which is bad. And the weather is getting freakier every season. But if you tell them China is to take a significant cut on carbon emissions, they look at you as if you are kidding. When you tell them it is going to be China's voluntary action, they even laugh at you as if the word voluntary serves only as a new device to shirk one's responsibility - which, in Chinese, can actually mean an initiative to do something beyond one's call of duty, or that no one else has ever set a standard for a similar case before. Perhaps this is why the New York Times version of Hu's speech is marked by "inaudible" spaces, especially the paragraphs containing the Chinese action plans. I would be surprised to know if Chinese officials would have denied an English copy of their president's speech to the press on the ground of state secrecy. Some other media seized the word "significant" ("notable" is the word Reuters used) to ask: How significant is it going to be? It is only an adjective. And it is never verifiable. But were their reporters not reporting from the summit venue? Or were they? Did they miss the press conference by one of China's key national planning officials after the Hu speech promising that Beijing will announce its target soon? Or did they ever bother, if they have the guts, to ask what specific goals other heads of states, those bearing at least equal responsibility for taking action, have pledged? All this is politics-as-usual, at least at the Freudian level. For some people, the only proper thing that China, or in the climate matter all developing countries, are supposed to do is to listen to their sermons filled with new-age intelligence, mixed with targets from their mandate. Psychologically, they are not prepared for any of their would-be students to take a more creative approach. Of course, most world press reports welcomed the Chinese position. And, people can expect China to come up with a more detailed pledge of its green program prior to the Copenhagen conference on climate change. After all, there are plenty of people in the world who understand how to check facts, compare figures from governmental as well as independent sources, and call a spade a spade. Also, as most people can tell, the Chinese government can most probably remain true to its pledge to the world, and meet the specific target it has promised simply because, as international observers have rightly pointed out, it has no one else to pass on the responsibility to. Having said this, however, the Chinese government does have to make an extra effort to spread its message in the domestic press as well, to ask them to change from their own politics- and business-as-usual mode. Frankly, it was alarming to read, for instance, in its front-page report about the world feedback on Hu's speech, a usually nationalistic newspaper even thought up the headline "China is being hoaxed (huyou in Chinese) into a world leader." What's wrong with China joining the leadership of a global green campaign? Perhaps, for the editors who give such headlines, the nation would be better off by never working with the rest of the world. But, if China refuses to go for green, I have to say, their sacred motherland would not remain red either; it will get blackened and buried by sooty pollution. E-mail: younuo@chinadaily.com.cn |
If I were President Hu Jintao, I would have felt dejected after the UN climate summit in New York last week. Indeed, as former US Vice-President Al Gore might have once felt, for any political figure, striving to be green is not easy, and can be at times quite lonely, for your usual supporters may be at a loss about what you are up to; and, your usual critics may pour further scorn on the seemingly idealistic and impractical goals that you have adopted.