China paying high price for rapid economic development, expert tells EU

A Brussels conference has been told that China’s huge economic success story “hides a very different story.”

Renowned Chinese author Minxin Pei said that behind the image that Beijing wants to portray during this summer’s Olympics lay a country blighted by environmental and social “degradation.”

Speaking in Brussels on Thursday, at an event organised by the European Policy Centre, Pei said the Chinese had been subject to “many years of bullying” by the world’s superpowers and the games gave China the chance of “psychological closure” on this.

“China, of course, will want to use the event to reinforce its opinion that it is a very capable and respectable government,” said Pei, director of the China programme at the US-based Carnegie endowment for international peace.

“All the world’s great powers have hosted the games and the infrastructure for the event is truly amazing.

“But the question we should be asking is what lies behind the gleaming sports facilities?

“The answer, sadly, is that China is a country full of contradictions. On the other side of the coin is a country marked by alarmingly uneven development.

“A few kilometres outside Beijing are abject slums and people living in great poverty. A serious environmental price has also been paid for the country’s economic success story.

“And, of course, the games will be haunted by the image of 7000 school buildings which collapsed in the recent earthquake.

“Here is a country which, it seems, can build world class sports facilities for the Olympics but cannot provide safe buildings for its school children.”

His comments come as a top-level delegation of senior Chinese parliamentarians conclude a week-long visit to the European parliament during which they met MEPs and leaders of the political groups.

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