Beijing's neighbours resist transfer of its polluting industries
Beijing’s latest effort to move energy intensive, polluting businesses out of the Chinese capital has run into resistance from regional governments who are unenthusiastic about taking more industrial castoffs.
For several years, Beijing has relocated heavy industry out of the capital while encouraging the development of service businesses that churn out less pollution. The effort was heavily promoted ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics, when nearly 200 chemical, coking and steel works moved out of the capital. In 2011, Shougang Group, which ran a large steel plant in western Beijing that had opened in 1919, completed a transfer of its operations 140 miles to the southeast.
But with Beijing’s air quality still poor and traffic often congested, economic planners have sought to continue the process of relocating industry. The move is part of a broader effort to more closely integrate Beijing with its neighbors: Hebei, the province that surrounds the capital and Tianjin, a large city to its southeast. Chinese leader Xi Jinping gave the plan his public backing in February, saying that the three areas, which have more than 100 million residents, needed to better integrate their development.
Beijing has proposed a list of 207 companies manufacturing chemicals, metals, furniture, textiles and building materials that it wants to relocate this year. But officials in Tianjin and Hebei have so far reacted coldly. This first wave of relocated companies are all highly polluting, high energy consuming type businesses that will be a burden wherever they go, so at present the enthusiasm of Tianjin and Hebei to take them on isn’t high.
Source – Sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com