At the end of 2012, Chinese leader Hu Jintao gave way to Xi Jinping, the newest ruler of China, which started another stage in the development of the Chinese economy, despite the scenario. despite the international economic crisis, it still maintains remarkable economic growth, based on internal investments in infrastructure and on the consolidated modality of export.
In fact, the recent political reforms that have taken place in China have kept the prospect of economic growth as the main component, but now with a concern. greater in producing a more balanced society from a social point of view, especially in light of the forecasts of increased urbanization and an increase in the consumer market internal. Mathematical models show that the country will have about 1 billion people belonging to the middle class by the year 2030, numbers that the Chinese government understands as a planned phenomenon and integrated into its public policies.
However, it deserves attention that an increasingly urban country demands greater care with social protection systems, such as universal access to education, housing and drinking water. Even with the aggressive economic posture, the Chinese political system remains based on a party dictatorship communist, and economic changes are not reflected in greater participation of the population in crucial decisions for the parents.
Since the end of the 1980s and, mainly, with the Rio-92 meeting, the concepts sustainability and environmental development began to dominate scientific debates and politicians. In the case of China, the country's strong economic growth was not accompanied by changes in its energy base and in the formulation of its sectorial policies, which can be seen if we observe how the Chinese government conducts its structural works, as in the case of the Three Gorges Hydroelectric Power Plant, on the Yangtze River, which left more than 1 million people homeless and a huge loss of biodiversity.
Three throats – the largest hydroelectric plant in the world, but left thousands of people homeless, in addition to having generated a great loss of biodiversity
The most used energy source in the country is coal, which is a non-renewable and highly polluting fossil fuel. This fuel accounts for about 70% of Chinese electricity generation. According to data from the WHO (World Health Organization), China has 16 cities positioned in the ranking of 20 the most polluted cities on the planet, an alarming fact that represents the State's lack of social and environmental commitment Chinese. A meager example of this reality was the reduction in industrial activity and the stoppage of works in the civil construction sector in the Beijing region just before the 2008 Olympic Games, in order to provide minimum conditions for athletes to perform events such as marathon, cycling and triathlon.
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Entrepreneurship engaged in sustainability means achieving economic growth in a non-predatory manner, rationalizing the use of natural resources and, at the same time, creating a environment of social sustainability by generating jobs in different production chains directly or indirectly from creativity and social investment in areas such as basic sanitation and education. All of this becomes very unlikely in a country with such centralized power that it undermines the concept of entrepreneurial creativity by denying the population their freedom of expression.
Within the process of China's economic insertion in the globalized market, a type of entrepreneurship in which the Chinese state creates companies has gained prominence state-owned companies that engage with multinational partnerships in order to create new projects and products with a technological basis, generating gains for the qualification of the the country's workforce and scientific knowledge, which can only be achieved through a vast program to improve the educational system, in different levels.
Although implicitly, it can be concluded that, to achieve this goal, Chinese companies will need to meet different environmental standards and requirements of these and other new markets, absorbing such precepts and applying them to different sectors of its economy, creating an atmosphere more favorable to development social and environmental.
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¹ Image credits: Hung Chung Chih and Shutterstock
Julio César Lázaro da Silva
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP
Master in Human Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SILVA, Julius César Lázaro da. "China's Economic Growth and the Challenge of Sustainability"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/geografia/crescimento-economico-china-desafio-sustentabilidade.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
