New York Daily News - Ideas & Opinions - Stanley Crouch: China has a chance to turn things green

New York Daily News - Ideas & Opinions - Stanley Crouch: China has a chance to turn things greenChina has a chance to turn things green

Now could be the time for China to throw its weight around for the good of the world and come out an ecological hero of epic proportions.

This is far from impossible. The necessary elements are right there. The Chinese giant could clean up its image, get the best available propaganda and prove itself an irrefutable world leader of unexpected vision and resourcefulness.

This could come at just the moment that we have become grimly aware of how well China has manipulated capitalist investment in order to get the money necessary to finance its totalitarian state. That need not be the whole story, however. In fact, I wonder how long it will take those Chinese to figure out that they should use the power with which they are now familiar and reverse the relationship of this entire planet to the oil industry.

How could China do this and why would it care to? Well, China has had pollution problems for many years and is no more in need of a larger amount of filthy air than any other country. If a very bright and charismatic member of the party were to think about it, he could come to the conclusion that it is time for that huge nation to use its impressive power and push the car industry to step away from big oil, which we know is both poisoning the planet and keeping us all in hock to the Middle East.

If such a person were to appear and be so influential, China could offer the car manufacturers of the world entry into a market of 1.5 billion people, only 10% of which is 150 million cars! But that entry would only be allowed if automobiles that did not use gasoline were developed.

This would be an ecological strategy driven by greed. If the Chinese have learned only one thing from the West, it is that the flag of greed almost never hangs at half-staff. It is flapping at the top of the pole and can be seen from miles away. There are few who believe that car manufacturers would turn down a chance for their share of millions of customers in exchange for making big oil happy. With the chance to break into the Chinese market, the auto industry would start working on alternate forms of fuel immediately.

This is where totalitarian forms of government have a small advantage over liberal democracies. They do not have to wade through oceans of words or prepare themselves for the influence of lobbyists on every issue. Things begin to happen almost as soon as a decision is made.

That is exactly why we should not be surprised if we were to see good policy come from the strangest places every now and then.

Originally published on November 21, 2005