Some experts wonder if China's economic juggernaut will derail from its own success. Industrial pollution threatens to choke the country's growth rate. Toxic air and water, soil erosion and an appetite for energy fed by dirty coal-fired power generation pose enormous challenges.
There would be social and political consequences, too, of an abrupt economic downturn, some of them potentially nasty given China's history.
But the silver lining in an otherwise dark cloud is the fact that the Chinese leadership is on the case and may be well equipped in its top-down way to force necessary changes.
In a June 2007 article of Harvard Business Review, "Scorched Earth," (http://www.hbr.com/) the authors give hope that China will become a fruitful laboratory for green technologies. If shown effective they could then be exported to the U.S. and Europe.
China's current political framework is a double-edged sword. On one hand, lax regulation and local corruption allow many factories to flout environmental rules. On the other, Beijing has the power, through a combination of incentives and sanctions, to correct this and enforce its will.
But the authors go further urging U.S. corporations and other multinationals doing business in China to be exemplary corporate stewards of the environment. They should seize the opportunity to innovate, develop and refine new green technologies, products and processes. Given the high costs imposed by more restrictive regulations in their home countries, foreign companies are offered by China a chance to think and work outside the box.
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