China Environmental Law

I was all set to write something edifying today when what do I discover but this China Daily article which picks up and runs with that preposterous Greenpeace smear job about multinational companies in China and their disregard for “standard operating procedures.” The article manages to get just about everything wrong, but who cares when you get to bash the big bad foreign companies who are solely responsible, through their wanton disregard for China’s environmental laws, for Beijing’s air pollution, the blue-green algae in Taihu, and illegal dumping of silicon tetrachloride in Henan Province.

With the Measures for the Disclosure of Environmental Information coming into force on May 1, all enterprises in China are expected to timely and accurately make public their ecological footprints. [no they aren't, they are "encouraged" to disclose such information; I wouldn't "expect" much of anything from most "enterprises in China" if I were you]

This will bring to an end the embarrassing practice that multinational companies are virtually left free to shirk the standard operating procedures of their countries of origin by not publicizing pollution information. [I suppose now that "ecological footprint" disclosure is a "standard operating procedure" in China, Chinese companies operating in say Africa or Southeast Asia will be expected to reveal their "footprints" in those countries; we wouldn't want to embarrass anyone would we? Keep an eye on that will you Greenpeace]

A recent survey by Greenpeace found that 13 of 28 multinational companies operating in China adopted a double standard on environment protection due to the lack of impetus to unveil information on pollution. [assuming this statistic is true, more than half of the sampled multinationals voluntarily disclosed their "ecological footprint," which is a considerably higher percentage than Chinese companies]

The implementation of the new measures will surely goad them to show equal respect for the public’s right to know the environmental truth in China as well as in their home countries. [the Chinese public will be infinitely better served if more than half of all Chinese companies choose to follow the regulatory "encouragement" and voluntarily disclose their "ecological footprints"]

OK, I’m going to stop now and count to 10.  Edification tomorrow I promise.