China and its Growth
China’s growth has just not affected their neighbors but also has effect many aspects of their economy and the quality of life of their residents. China’s affect on their neighbors has risen because of the amount of resources that it has required because of the growth of the economy. The account for about a fifth of the world’s population but they use half of the world’s pork, half of the cement, a third of it’s steel and over a fourth of it’s aluminum. They have increased it imports on soy bean and crude oil by 35 times since 1999. The International Energy Agency expects China’s import on oil to triple by 2030. China has used over 80 percent of the world’s consumption of copper since 2000 (Economist.com). In its effort to maintain its resources, China has begun pouring money into undeveloped countries so that it can secure access to their physical resources. Some of the counties include war-torn Congo and Sudan. The Congolese government announced that Chinese state-owned firms are going to build and improve railways, roads and mines around the country at the cost of $12 billion, in exchange for the rights to mine the copper ore to the same amount. In Sudan, China has begun to invest into their oilfields and purchasing their outputs. These investments have allowed Sudan to shrug of Western threats and sanctions. These activities have had some backlash from other government and non-government groups. The most recent in the news was when Steven Spielberg resigned as an adviser to the Beijing Olympics in protest at China’s failure to act against the violence in Darfur. A large amount of criticism came from China’s official media (www.economist.com).
Another issue that has risen from China’s growth is the amount of pollution. Pollution is ...