China Threatens Death Penalty for Serious Polluters

[News_Editor]

A visitor wearing a mask walks outside the Forbidden City on a heavy haze day in central Beijing on Jan. 13, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

BEIJING Chinese authorities have given courts the powers to hand down the death penalty in serious pollution cases, state media said, as the government tries to assuage growing public anger at environmental desecration.

An increasingly affluent urban population has begun to object to China’s policy of growth at all costs, which has fueled the economy for three decades, with the environment emerging as a focus of concern and protests.

A new judicial interpretation which took effect on Wednesday would impose harsher punishments and tighten lax and superficial enforcement of the country's environmental protection laws, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

In the most serious cases the death penalty could be handed down,it said.

With more precise criteria for convictions and sentencing, the judicial explanation provides a powerful legal weapon for law enforcement, which is expected to facilitate the work of judges and tighten punishments for polluters, Xinhua said, citing a government statement.

All force should be mobilized to uncover law-breaking clues of environmental pollution in a timely way, it added.

Previous promises to tackle China’s pollution crisis have had mixed results, and enforcement has been a problem at the local level, where governments often heavily rely on tax receipts from polluting industries under their jurisdiction.

Protests over pollution have unnerved the stability-obsessed ruling Communist Party.

Thousands of people took to the streets in the southwestern city of Kunming last month to protest against the planned production of a chemical at a refinery.

Severe air pollution in Beijing and large parts of northern China this winter have added to the sense of unease among the population.

Human rights groups say China executes thousands of people a year, more than all other countries combined. The death penalty is often imposed for corruption and other economic crimes.

Source: Irrawaddy.org

[Steely Dan]

How do they plan to dispose of the remains of those executed, cremation?

[geriatrickid]

How do they plan to dispose of the remains of those executed, cremation?

Usually, body parts are harvested for use.

Then the bodies can be recycled as fertilizer or "feed".

Sad, but true in respect to executions.

[Scott]

In good environmental practice, the parts will be recycled. In good capitalist fashion, they will probably be sold to the highest bidder.

[Publicus]

Beijing's gonna have to shoot or hang or both at least a third of its CCP membership who supervise the provinces and municipalities and maybe 80% of the operators of its state owned corporations. That may go a long way toward solving its absurd population problem but it still won't stop the state corporations from polluting the land, air and water.

Historically, only 13% of the land of China is arable, but now arable land has been reduced but no one except CCP officials in Beijing know by how much since it has become a state secret. The CCP in Beijing is in an ongoing stink - in a manner of speaking - with the U.S. Embassy in Beijing which keeps track of air "quality" according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards and World Health Organization standards, either of which consistently show air pollution to be off the charts in respect to human health. Two weeks ago, at noon in Beijing, it was as dark as night the air was so horrendous.

I lived and worked three years in Guangzhou City, which is Ye Olde Canton, a south PRChina metro area of some 13 million near Shenzhen City, another population center of 10 million and which is next to Hong Kong - what a corridor of filth! The air in Guangzhou was/is awful - I could taste it in my mouth it was so foul. (I smoke cigarettes but as I've always insisted, I have the right to smoke in clean air ).

Seriously, the air in the PRC is foul everywhere. My PRChinese friends often took me on weekends to the countryside to get fresh air or, in a three to four hour drive, to small communities on the South China Sea where the air is clean and the mercury in the seafood is great .

Then there's the water. One of the links below is to the fact human corpses always are floating around in Chinese rivers, and that there are full time "body fishers" who earn a living fishing out the human corpses and then selling........well, you can go to the link if you have the stomach for it. Same with the dead birds and dead pigs in the water.

Then there's the ground pollution which affects the water tables, wells etc.

My god.

These Photos Show Why China's Smog Problem Is Completely Out Of Control

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-of-smog-emergency-in-china-2013-1?op=1#ixzz2LeIIelxO

If You Think China's Air Is Bad, You Should See The Water

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/china-water-pollution-2013-3?op=1#ixzz2PAPCEvFM

See China's water pollution >

Rivers of blood: the dead pigs rotting in China's water supply

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/29/dead-pigs-china-water-supply

Dead Ducks In China Rivers

First Pigs, Now Ducks: Dead Birds Found In Chinese River

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/dead-ducks-china-river

Now In China's Rivers: Decomposing Humans

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2013/03/31/now-in-chinas-rivers-decomposing-humans/

Edited June 21, 2013 by Publicus

[puck2]

Publicus, Posted 2013-06-21 10:38:03

................

I lived and worked three years in Guangzhou City, which is Ye Olde Canton, a south PRChina metro area of some 13 million near Shenzhen City, another population center of 10 million and which is next to Hong Kong - what a corridor of filth! The air in Guangzhou was/is awful - I could taste it in my mouth it was so foul. (I smoke cigarettes but as I've always insisted, I have the right to smoke in clean air ).

Seriously, the air in the PRC is foul everywhere. My PRChinese friends often took me on weekends to the countryside to get fresh air or, in a three to four hour drive, to small communities on the South China Sea where the air is clean and the mercury in the seafood is great .

Then there's the water. One of the links below is to the fact human corpses always are floating around in Chinese rivers, and that there are full time "body fishers" who earn a living fishing out the human corpses and then selling........well, you can go to the link if you have the stomach for it. Same with the dead birds and dead pigs in the water.

Then there's the ground pollution which affects the water tables, wells etc.

...................

Maybe it's correct for "Guangzhou City, which is Ye Olde Canton", but you should beware of generalising.

That there have been corpses in the Yellow River is reported by Forbes, your reference. The Yellow River is already a dead river polluted from te origin to the outlet. Dumping of more than 16,000 pig carcasses and unloading more than 1,000 lifeless ducks into rivers ... it's the capitalistic way, the cheapest way to get rid of them.

Do you think the international companies from the West are so different? They don't put carcasses into a creek, a river or the sea. No, they let the chemicals unpurifiedly flow unseen into the rivers and let polluted air go to the sky. One main reason, why they open their companies here in Asia. It's cheaper, is not controlled by the governments or their agencies. Or the "problem" can the solved by tea money. The result for the rivers and the air and the people is the same like in China. The Western style is only more sophisticated, not so obvious.

Think of Map Ta Phut, air pollution in Thailand, Bhopal disaster in the Indian subsidiary of the US Union Carbide Corp., Sumatra ... etc.

If China would seriously punish the reliable polluters this would be a progress, no doubt. If ..., the future will show us it's seriousness.

To your generalisation.

In the areas of South China where i've been some years before (below) I didn't see any corpses of people, ducks or pigs in the rivers or lakes. And I've seen a lot of waters. Except of touristic centres the air was clear and clean.

In the rivers and on their banks, on the streets in these areas I didn't see more waste than here in Thailand.

I've been in many parts

- Yunnan (Kunming, Tiger Leping Gorge, Erhai-Lake, Yuanyang-Rice-Fields, Zhongdian)

- Sichuan (Lugu Hu =Lake, Leshan, Emai Shan, Xichang-Qinghai Lake, Zigong-Dino-Mus.,Cishui),

- Guanxi (Nanning, Guilin, Yangshuo, Longchen, Beihai)

So I disagree with your generalisation.

Edited June 23, 2013 by puck2

[Publicus]

Publicus, Posted 2013-06-21 10:38:03

................

I lived and worked three years in Guangzhou City, which is Ye Olde Canton, a south PRChina metro area of some 13 million near Shenzhen City, another population center of 10 million and which is next to Hong Kong - what a corridor of filth! The air in Guangzhou was/is awful - I could taste it in my mouth it was so foul. (I smoke cigarettes but as I've always insisted, I have the right to smoke in clean air ).

Seriously, the air in the PRC is foul everywhere. My PRChinese friends often took me on weekends to the countryside to get fresh air or, in a three to four hour drive, to small communities on the South China Sea where the air is clean and the mercury in the seafood is great .

Then there's the water. One of the links below is to the fact human corpses always are floating around in Chinese rivers, and that there are full time "body fishers" who earn a living fishing out the human corpses and then selling........well, you can go to the link if you have the stomach for it. Same with the dead birds and dead pigs in the water.

Then there's the ground pollution which affects the water tables, wells etc.

...................

Maybe it's correct for "Guangzhou City, which is Ye Olde Canton", but you should beware of generalising.

That there have been corpses in the Yellow River is reported by Forbes, your reference. The Yellow River is already a dead river polluted from te origin to the outlet. Dumping of more than 16,000 pig carcasses and unloading more than 1,000 lifeless ducks into rivers ... it's the capitalistic way, the cheapest way to get rid of them.

Do you think the international companies from the West are so different? They don't put carcasses into a creek, a river or the sea. No, they let the chemicals unpurifiedly flow unseen into the rivers and let polluted air go to the sky. One main reason, why they open their companies here in Asia. It's cheaper, is not controlled by the governments or their agencies. Or the "problem" can the solved by tea money. The result for the rivers and the air and the people is the same like in China. The Western style is only more sophisticated, not so obvious.

Think of Map Ta Phut, air pollution in Thailand, Bhopal disaster in the Indian subsidiary of the US Union Carbide Corp., Sumatra ... etc.

If China would seriously punish the reliable polluters this would be a progress, no doubt. If ..., the future will show us it's seriousness.

To your generalisation.

In the areas of South China where i've been some years before (below) I didn't see any corpses of people, ducks or pigs in the rivers or lakes. And I've seen a lot of waters. Except of touristic centres the air was clear and clean.

In the rivers and on their banks, on the streets in these areas I didn't see more waste than here in Thailand.

I've been in many parts

- Yunnan (Kunming, Tiger Leping Gorge, Erhai-Lake, Yuanyang-Rice-Fields, Zhongdian)

- Sichuan (Lugu Hu =Lake, Leshan, Emai Shan, Xichang-Qinghai Lake, Zigong-Dino-Mus.,Cishui),

- Guanxi (Nanning, Guilin, Yangshuo, Longchen, Beihai)

So I disagree with your generalisation.

I didn't see the corpses at all either, not the humans, the birds, the pigs etc. You need to take that up with the people who were there, to include the officials of the government of the CCP-PRC who acknowledged the deadly menace and spoke of it, trying to minimize it, and to the news reporting agencies from throughout the world. You need to talk to them. Or, even more important, to read or view them.

Beijing Isn't Even The Most Polluted City In China

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-polluted-cities-of-the-worlds-largest-economies-2013-1#ixzz2X2GpVUgd

China orders its industries to cut pollution:

Thirty per cent reduction aims to address dreadful record on the environment

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-orders-its-industries-to-cut-pollution-8660989.html

Top 10 most polluted Chinese cities in 2012

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/11/29/10-cities-with-worlds-worst-air/

You fail to consider that I've been to many other parts of the PRC myself, too. I've gaged my way through Beijing, for example, Shanghai, Chongqing .....I could make my own list too.

Your post is self-embarrassing. It's self defeating. If I were you, I might consider removing the rose colored glasses for something more practical and healthy, such as a gas mask, which includes protection of the eyes and ears.

[Publicus]

The CCP has had to resort to using the death penalty against polluters because the nationwide problem of air, land and water pollution has become acute, deadly to everyone in the CCP-PRC.

1.2m Chinese killed by air pollution in 2010

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/12m-chinese-killed-by-air-pollution-in-2010-8557487.html

[bangkokrick]

I am in China at present and I do not find the pollution at all bad. It was a beautiful sunny day in Shanghai today, so nice that i went for a walk. Did not see anything floating or rotting on my travels.Shanghai, Jiangsu, Souzhou, Ningbo,and Hangzhou. All looked pretty clean to me.

[antfish]

I am in China at present and I do not find the pollution at all bad. It was a beautiful sunny day in Shanghai today, so nice that i went for a walk. Did not see anything floating or rotting on my travels.Shanghai, Jiangsu, Souzhou, Ningbo,and Hangzhou. All looked pretty clean to me.

Good to hear and good to have some information from someone who is actually on location and in the country in question instead of someone who posts years old "news".

[Publicus]

I am in China at present and I do not find the pollution at all bad. It was a beautiful sunny day in Shanghai today, so nice that i went for a walk. Did not see anything floating or rotting on my travels.Shanghai, Jiangsu, Souzhou, Ningbo,and Hangzhou. All looked pretty clean to me.

Fortunately, you are not one of the 1.2 million dead people due to pollution alone in the CCP-PRC.

[Scott]

An off-topic post has been removed. Let's stick to the topic of the thread and not the people posting.

[bangkokrick]

I am in China at present and I do not find the pollution at all bad. It was a beautiful sunny day in Shanghai today, so nice that i went for a walk. Did not see anything floating or rotting on my travels.Shanghai, Jiangsu, Souzhou, Ningbo,and Hangzhou. All looked pretty clean to me.

Fortunately, you are not one of the 1.2 million dead people due to pollution alone in the CCP-PRC.

Hey say what you see and thats exactly what I am doing. I don't see any evidence of what you posted

[bangkokrick]

Jiangsu just about and hour and a half from Shanghai central. Looks like a living hell doesn't it.

[Potosi]

Pretty, but dead. A lake or river encased in concrete is. Pollution in this body of water can't be removed swiftly by nature itself.

[bangkokrick]

Pretty, but dead. A lake or river encased in concrete is. Pollution in this body of water can't be removed swiftly by nature itself.

Notice the clear sky.

[SinglePot]

OK. Let's focus on reality.

I have spent the last 12 months living and working in Beijing. Air quality is horrendous.

My apartment on the 14th floor of a tower overlooks a small river and a park with trees. You know something. I never saw any birds and I never saw any butterflies. Odd. Worryingly odd. Any other major city in the world with NO birds or butterflies?

The BIG issue from the post is this:

"An increasingly affluent urban population has begun to object to China’s policy of growth at all costs, which has fueled the economy for three decades, with the environment emerging as a focus of concern and protests."

Rampant materialism, like I have seen nowhere else in the world, is beginning to pi** people off. Or more accurately, the consequences of rampant materialism.

The Communist Party Leadership have a problem. Increasing disaffection from the people that they are making rich.

So what does the leadership do? Announce capital punishment for the offenders!

HYPOCRISY.

A major source of the pollution, apart from the chemicals and toxic waste from factories whose emission controls are dubious to say the least, are coal powered electricity generating stations. Bear in mind that since 2000, something like 100 million people have become urbanised. Moved from the country to become new city dwellers. China's demand for electricity is phenomenal.

Hydroelectric power from Laos and Burma is being tapped big time. Environmental consequences of dams on the Mekong is a big issue.

But back to the BIG issue of this topic. China has a problem. Leadership feeds bullshit.

[Publicus]

Guangxi province toward the south west of the PRC has been selected by Beijing as a tourist center, and a beautiful place it is - it closely resembles the South of Thailand with its peaks and spectacular topography. The three days I was there the air was clear, crisp, very healthy feeling. The presence of industry is strictly limited to almost nothing so that the environment can remain attractive to the province's main industry, tourism.

However, the locals we spoke with away from our guided tour said the air and water ignore provincial boundaries, which may come as a surprise to some certain people here, but which is something the rest of us realize and know well. Air currents from South Asia countries and also in PRC industrial provinces adjacent to or nearby Guangxi, such as Guangdong, Sichuan and others, move into Guangxi province regularly, making the air quality inconsistent, i.e., often poor. Rivers polluted by provinces to the north and west of Guangxi province flow through the province, creating pollution problems. Acid rain falls regularly, as it does throughout the PRC.

I can say that if one takes a photo of scenic Guangxi province on a given day, it is picturesque and spectacular. However, the locals advised us of the reality of environmental "quality" on most days - a sad report of rather unpleasant air and drinking water problems. The acid rain problem also affects agriculture and kills river creatures that are important to both the environment and to the locals who fish to eat.

Even the Boyz in Beijing are acknowledging serious and even severe environmental problems throughout the PRC.

(Note: anytime one refers to a new "affluence" in the PRC, it means compared to the rest of the PRChina. "Affluence" in the CCP-PRC is a particularly relative word that is not used in the same way we use it in Western countries, or in places such as S Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other "Asian Tiger" countries. For example, is there affluence in Thailand? Yes, there is. Is Thailand an "affluent" country? No, it isn't.)

[bangkokrick]

I do not have an axe to grind on this subject. i am just stating that the conditions stated in some of the above posts are not apparent today. Thats not to say that the conditions will not change depending on the region and weather conditions.

[Publicus]

I do not have an axe to grind on this subject. i am just stating that the conditions stated in some of the above posts are not apparent today. Thats not to say that the conditions will not change depending on the region and weather conditions.

This news articles posted to this thread are current. So is my own individual knowledge.

[bangkokrick]

Well I don't see any evidence of the nature of the news items, but I will keep you posted. I am back in Shanghai and there is a storm brewing.

[Scott]

I have removed some posts that relate to the haze coming from the Indonesian fires. We really don't have much on that but there is this topic running:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/649210-narathiwat-haze-level-now-adverse-to-health/

[Publicus]

Well I don't see any evidence of the nature of the news items, but I will keep you posted. I am back in Shanghai and there is a storm brewing.

Yes, you know there's a big storm brewing throughout the CCP-PRC, and that massive pollution is a part of it.

The more relatively affluent the PRChinese get, the more accountability they demand of their governments at all levels. The major problem in this respect is that, while the vast majority of PRChinese know their local and provincial governments are corrupt and only self-serving, they used to believe the guys at the national level were good guys with the interests of the PRChina in mind, foremost and sincerely.

They now are learning the guys at the top are even worse than the liars, cheats and thieves at the local and provincial levels. The CCP at all levels of government has one last chance in Xi Jinping and PM Li Kejiang, who know major reforms to the PRC are necessary and required for it to survive. Few of us are optimistic, however, due to the strength of vested interests and the might of the PLA and most of the CCP arrayed against reform, democracy especially - Western parliamentary concepts and systems are hated by everyone in the CCP, which of course includes the so-called reformers Xi and Li.

The outlook is not promising.

Apples Grow Black in Polluted Chinese City

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/130583-apples-grow-black-in-polluted-chinese-city/

[Publicus]

In the CCP-PRC you can't trust what you're looking at, right there before your eyes. We're talking toxic pesticides here.

Toxic Pesticides Found in Traditional Chinese Herbs

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/133443-toxic-pesticides-found-in-traditional-chinese-herbs/

[Publicus]

Health and life span aren't getting any better in the CCP-PRC.

In fact the worse news keeps rolling in on a regular, consistent basis.

All Five of Beijing’s Major Water Systems Seriously Polluted

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/251030-all-five-of-beijings-major-water-systems-seriously-polluted/

Among the five major river systems, the North Canal, which is used for 90 percent of the drainage in downtown Beijing and provides water to 70 percent of the population of that city, was the most seriously polluted. A standard test for determining water quality, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), confirmed that pollutants in the water of North Canal were nearly 95 times higher than what is deemed safe.

Surveys also showed large areas of incomplete sewage collection in Beijing. Apparently, only 60 to 70 percent of highly populated urban areas in that city are serviced by and connected to any sewage treatment plants. A large amount of sewage is being continually discharged directly into the rivers.

The 2012 Beijing Environmental Bulletin, which was issued by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection, shows that among the 88 rivers monitored by Beijing, 42.1 percent of the total volume of all 88 rivers were classified as the poorest water quality currently designated.

Air Pollution Takes Toll on China’s Tourism

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/243084-air-pollution-takes-toll-on-chinas-tourism/

China, one of the most visited countries in the world, has seen sharply fewer tourists this year – with worsening air pollution partly to blame.

Numbers of foreign visitors have declined following January’s “Airpocalypse,” when already eye-searing levels of smog soared to new highs.

That China’s air and water are badly polluted following three decades of breakneck growth is not news but January’s record-setting bout of smog got worldwide news coverage and was so bad some longtime foreign residents left the country.

[Mosha]

How do they plan to dispose of the remains of those executed, cremation?

Usually, body parts are harvested for use.

Then the bodies can be recycled as fertilizer or "feed".

Sad, but true in respect to executions.

Soylent Green is the way to go.

[jackr]

How about also hanging the CEOs of those mega factories that churn out millions of tons of plastic crap to flood the world with?

[Scott]

How do they plan to dispose of the remains of those executed, cremation?

Usually, body parts are harvested for use.

Then the bodies can be recycled as fertilizer or "feed".

Sad, but true in respect to executions.

Soylent Green is the way to go.

Are you referring to the film, the food or the ThaiVisa poster?