This is hilarious because the sentiment (look at me trying not to use provocative language) regarding China has meant there’s been an outwardly view that they only care about polluting and yet, not only are they producing the bulk of the world’s solar panels, they’re actually implementing green energy policies at a rapid rate. Funny thing is, this isn’t even a pro-China thing, it’s a pro-planet thing. We absolutely need our biggest nations to lead the way in replacing coal and the likes with renewables. I will happily celebrate the small wins along the way.
True but we should also realize that China didn’t just sit around one day and go “let’s set up a bunch of coal fired power plants and steel mills for funsies.”
Most western countries that have run the neoliberalism playbook have gone “let’s let China build shit, we will do service, finance, and knowledge work instead” but we still want manufactured goods. I just think it’s important to bring this context when people point to China’s coal use as if they are just burning it for fun. They are burning it because we wanted cheaper goods and if we hadn’t have offshored that industry to them we’d be burning it.
We pay them to burn the coal and then complain that China is a polluter.