Open Letter to the People of China

I have been reading Jared Diamond’s ‘Collapse’ which treats of lost worlds and vanished civilizations: these people died from habit. They flourished at first by exploiting unsustainable resources. As these resources diminished, they failed to adapt but pressed on to the end.When I came to the section on modern societies I found that China has four times the growth rate of any major country. Here, a quote from ‘Collapse’ (p358):

China’s environmental problems are among the most severe of any major country, and are getting worse. The long list ranges from air pollution, biodiversity losses, cropland losses, desertification, disappearing wetlands, grassland degradation, and increasing scale and frequency of human-induced natural disasters, to invasive species, overgrazing, river flow cessation, salinization, soil erosion, trash accumulation, and water pollution and shortages. These and other environmental problems are causing enormous economic losses, social conflicts, and health problems within China. All these considerations alone would suffice to make the impact of China’s environmental problems on just the Chinese people a subject of major concern.

But China’s large population, economy and area also guarantee that its environmental problems will not remain a domestic issue but will spill over to the rest of the world, which is increasingly affected through sharing the same planet, oceans, and atmosphere with China and which in turn affects China’s environment through globalization.

‘Collapse’ was published in 2006. The Chinese are now more advanced in plans to tackle climate change.
Instead of giving way to despair I began to write an open letter:

Dear People of China

It is now obvious that the Capitalist System perpetrated by the Western powers will crash – either before or after runaway climate change, we don’t know.
The world financial crisis is the match of the ecological crisis. We have a financial crisis because the earth is running out of natural resources and there is not so much left to exploit. As we know, once global warming reaches an increase of +2 degrees we can do nothing to stop climate change. The earth will then migrate to a temperature of +5 or +6 degrees by the end of the century.

We need to STOP climate change by changing our values, together with our financial system; banks should provide a service, not be run for profit. The only growth possible is in quality not quantity, and that means quality of life.

China is the one major power which could achieve this transition of values and provide itself with a financial soft-landing. This would help slow down climate change and preserve habitats for many creatures, including people. In the event that China could provide a model for other nations to copy, we could stop climate change and turn disaster into hope for a better world.

Our other source of hope is from thousands of individuals, charities and NGO’s who are already implementing ways to combat climate change using a hands-on, bottom-up approach (like the Cool Earth organization).

The harmful values we should change: The ideal of efficiency which dominates western nations grew out of our admiration for the changes which the Scientific Revolution brought to our world, together with the products of Scientific Industrialism. Yet this efficiency is only restless change, bringing us no nearer to desirable goals. It is merely efficiency for the sake of efficiency. We don’t know what our goals are. We have come to depend upon money. We let businessmen make the decisions in the belief that some of us will get more money – we used to believe that everyone would get more.

China is acutely aware that THE WORLD IS RUN FOR CHEAP LABOUR.

1.      Industrial methods of production do not require skill and wages can be kept to a minimum; maximum exploitation works for a time but neglect of farming, destruction of land and pollution causes rises in food prices and wages. In a world of over-population, factories can be relocated.

2.      Priority access to cheap raw materials is essential to this production. In addition, these raw materials provide cheap infrastructure to privileged nations, e.g. energy, transport, water.

They therefore support those populations who consume the most and pay taxes.

3.      Governments support global monopolies: by war, by legislation (e.g. legal permission for mining and drilling and by the backup of international trade agreements) and, most importantly, by I.O.U. World debt depends on the promise of constant revenue from the tax-payer.

This state of affairs has been won by depletion of natural resources and destruction of our planet. ‘Business as usual’ means power to the few, massive consumption (mostly junk) by the many and suffering by the most. It is death to continue.

Why at this late stage does China want to join in global destruction? China has a social structure embedded in her history which lends itself to the practice of top-down policy. (A modern example: one child per family.) She could consolidate her gains and change strategy to preserving life on earth. 

Since before the beginning of the Christian era, China was the Supreme Empire of the Far East, covering more or less the same area as today, bounded by natural borders: mountains, desert, pacific peoples to the south and a smooth coastline. This vast area was fertile, sufficient in raw materials and inhabited by an industrious and civilized people.Social cohesion was imposed, not by religion but by a code of good behaviour, introduced by Confucius who was a completely historical person (BC 551 – 479). He taught self-restraint, moderation and, above all, courtesy.
Government was in the hands of a meritocracy; officials were elected for their learning and moral character – then, later, they were selected by a literary examination. The examination system profoundly affected the civilization of China. It was customary for the scholar bureaucrats to be pure Confucians, sceptical in religion but not in morals and because of them the Confucian system maintained its hold – others were free to practice a mix of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and magic.

An important thought: We know how language changes over the centuries and phonetic spelling changes with it, but in China only the spoken language has changed. Written language is stored in written characters; each character is an ideogram, a concept. A modern Chinese person can still read the ideas of two thousand years ago.
I have just learnt with dismay that your schools no longer teach calligraphy. Should this ability be lost then the Chinese will no longer be Chinese.
Investment in Education is true and lasting wealth and an example of growth in quality of life.

Economic growth is not possible in today’s world. Even you, China – if diminished resources, damage, sickness and death were truly calculated, (together with your negative assets in the form of debt) you would be making a loss – working for nothing.
I know the idea is to become global and, therefore, exploit others. But Confucius knew best, he said, “Do unto others as you would be done by.” Protection of the environment is your wisest plan. Sustainability: not economic growth.