While some might consider a tradeoff between a country's economic development and the resulting socio-environmental burdens to be "justifiable," China has reached the tipping point at which the air crisis is significantly impacting economic development as well. The well-being of China's market is beginning to suffer, with stakeholders reluctant to engage with a country in the middle of an emiss…
While the rest of the world debates the impact of carbon emissions and the need to create binding agreements, China’s battle with air pollution has grown tangible enough to effectively catalyze stakeholders into action. With only six of China’s cities meeting the second tier of the National Environmental Air Quality Standards (NEAQS) in 2015, air pollution has become one of the biggest challenges…
With China’s desire to shift from “made in China” to “created in China”, the movement away from labor-intensive industries towards new, innovative, and highly efficient manufacturing has begun. Additionally, the existing Chinese workforce is more expectant and empowered than ever, demanding increasingly higher wages – wages that are some of the highest in the Asian region. As many consider the…
"Improvements in China’s air quality will not only come through national government action. It is a challenge that will require the engagement and enforcement of regulations at both provincial and local levels of government. Recent pledges coming from the national level to reduce pollution, through the 13th five year plan, and measurable improvements in AQI during 2015, show progressive steps ar…
After its astronomical rise to the world’s largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) over the last 35 years, the Chinese economy is experiencing a major transition from a manufacturing-based to a service-based economy. In 2015, the tertiary sector climbed to 50.5% of total gross domestic product (GDP) while industry continued to fall to 40.5% of total GDP. While this economic trans…
PM2.5 are fine particles of air pollution smaller than 2.5 micrometers — small enough that they can pass through our body’s filters and enter our lungs and cells. In fact, PM2.5 pollutants can be touched, tasted, and obviously seen whenever you look out the window at a Shanghai skyline or a Beijing avenue. Smog and urbanization go hand-in-hand around the world, and China is certainly no exception.…
Migrant workers. We see them across the city, working the hard jobs on the street, studying for university degrees, and earning wages to support themselves and others. They are domestic migrants, traveling to urban Chinese centers of opportunity from rural hometowns in hope and pursuit of a better life – for themselves and their families. Considering the political turmoil and societal hesitati…
Resting at the forefront of nearly any discussion relating to the future of China’s rapidly developing economy is its rising urban population, with over 1 billion residents living in China’s cities by 2030. Since China has already established itself as the world’s largest waste-generator, rising levels of output due to increasing levels of affluence, consumption, and population stimulate many ques…
Globally, China is often portrayed as the bad guy when it comes to environmental degradation and harm. While this is not without substance, and in many areas China is lacking far behind the world leaders, a growing public consciousness and the identification of opportunity is leading innovators to tackle the problems with business solutions. In this post, we outline areas of development and innova…
China faces an imminent and multifaceted challenge regarding its elderly population. It has the world’s largest aging population of 202 million people over the age of 60, a number that is expected to increase to 300 million by 2023 and 400 million by 2033. We can attribute China's aging dilemma to a myriad of factors, one of the most prominent being the 1978 One-Child Policy. While limiting each f…
To understand the importance of sustainability, you only have to spend a short period of time in one of China’s major cities where you see firsthand the challenges faced in developing urban systems where balance in economic development, society, and the environment is required. These systems are growing at speeds never seen before, and are unlikely to abate anytime in the next 35 years as we mo…
“Shanghai can’t give me the feeling of home. I don’t know if you have same experience. Despite the fact I am not particularly close to my family, I am still most comfortable when I am in my hometown and knowing that my family is somewhere I can reach. Every time when I am heading back home, by just looking at how the landscape is getting more and more familiar, my heart would feel warm”.…
Air travel is fast becoming the most popular form of international travel, and the industry in China is no exception to this. Commercial flying in the world’s second-largest economy has had an immense amount of investment over the past decade, and it is the fastest growing passenger air market in the world. With the expectation that 300 million more people will move to cities over the next twenty…
China now has as many automotive drivers as the entire population of the United States and it has rapidly become the largest car market in the world. This has been driven by the greater purchasing power of China’s growing middle class, which has been afforded the luxury of private travel for the first time. Less than thirty years ago, Chinese citizens were forbidden to buy cars but in the mid-1980…
Last week we wrote about how the nature of transportation in China is changing. In this second article of the series, we’ll take a closer look at China’s high-speed rail systems, and how they’re contributing to this shift. Railroad development has, and is, a fundamental part of economic expansion; it allows for the vital transport of people, linking of economic districts and drives regional inv…
