28 BEIJING REVIEW APRIL 20, 2017 http://www.bjreview.com
NATION
Environmental Protection
Trumps GDP Growth
New criteria introduced for assessing government officials based on
environmental efforts By Hou Weili
Although winter is fast fading into spring in
north Chinaís Hebei Province, the almost
daily curtains of smog that cover the re-
gion are a great cause of concern for Jiang Ting,
a 30-year-old new mom. Apart from inconve-
niences to life and work brought by the severe
air pollution, Jiang worries about the harm to her
health, and especially to that of her vulnerable
child.
Statistics released by China
Meteorological Administration showed
severe continuous smog clouded Chinaís
Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region on eight occa-
sions from November 2016 to early February
2017.
ìIndeed, our generation grew up in an
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than the time when I was a kid,î Jiang said,
adding her expectation was to have more
days with blue skies.
While seeing an improvement in the
livelihood of both her family and the local
community over the past three decades,
Jiang said she also saw the negative side of
this development, namely how the environ-
ment was gradually polluted. This was an
unexpected result of some local govern-
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the expense of the environment.
The good news is that Jiangís dream for
blue skies is on the way to being realized as
China embraces new reforms for the evalu-
ation of its officials. For the first time since
the late 1970sówhen China adopted its re-
form and opening-up policyógovernment
officialsí commitment to environmental
protection will be given higher priority than
GDP growth in evaluating their administrative
performance.Changing priorities
On January 12, Zhao Chenxin, spokesperson
of the National Development and Reform
Commission, said at a news briefing that
China would implement a new assessment
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criteria under which officialsí performance
would be evaluated would mainly be based on
Yao Baozhong, chief of Danshan Village, Shangyu District of Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province, is responsible for the
protection of a river near his villageXINHUA
environment-related indicators, including the
utilization of resources, environmental quality,
ecological protection, green lifestyle promotion
and public satisfaction.
Under the new mechanism, indicators
related to economic growth carry a weight
value of only 9.2 percent, less than half of
that related to the environment such as
the adequate utilization of resources and
environmental quality, which stand at 29.3
percent and 19.2 percent, respectively.
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ic particulate matter that has a diameter
of less than 2.5 micrometers (PM 2.5) is
weight-valued in the new mechanism at 2.75
percent.Officials in China are evaluated every
year and receive a general assessment ev-
ery five years. Previously, GDP growth was
the most important criterion in these pro-
cesses. Experts believe that highlighting the
environment-related indicators in the new
mechanism means that Chinaís economic
performance is shifting from focusing on
growth rates to ensuring peopleís well-being.
ìThe indicators and mechanism are de-
signed to guide local governments to place
improving peopleís well-being in various
aspects at the center of their work, pushing
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quality of the environment,î said Zhao.
Huang Langhui, former chief of the