China Policy Journal Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2018 | Page 92

Subjective and Objective Air Quality in Urban China
ready become one of the most pressing
threats to China’s economic sustainability
and social harmony.
According to an estimate of China’s
Ministry of Environmental Protection
(MEP) in 2010, environmental
pollution costs China around 1.5 trillion
RMB (227 billion U.S. dollars), or
roughly 3.5 percent of its gross domestic
product. Not only does environmental
pollution thwart economic development,
environmental pollution also
produces detrimental effects on public
health. Studies estimate that around 11
percent of digestive-system cancers in
China may stem from unsafe drinking
water (He, Fan, and Zhou 2016). A recent
study shows that air pollution has
caused significant health consequences,
including respiratory, cardiovascular,
and cerebrovascular diseases, in northern
China since the 1980s (Chen et al.
2017).
Among various types of pollution,
air pollution has produced most
visible negative economic, social, and
political impacts. Air pollution has led
to social unrest and collective actions,
threating political trust, and undermining
legitimacy (Albert and Xu 2016).
Air pollution has pushed people to migrate
or emigrate (Qin and Zhu 2018).
Therefore, fighting again air pollution
has become one of the top priorities
of the central government. Local governments
have also been mobilized to
fight against haze. After a lasting period
of “airpocalypse” in Beijing in 2013,
for instance, a senior Beijing municipal
government official vowed on his own
head to control the choking haze.
However, Chinese government
is facing tremendous challenges in addressing
air pollution issues due to
various reasons. First, air pollution in
China is a “wicked problem” (Rittel and
Webber 1973). The components and the
causes of air pollution are very complex
due to China’s large territory and vast
differences in demographic, geographic,
economic, and industrial characteristics
among regions.
In the past four decades, China
has experienced unprecedented fast industrialization
and urbanization. However,
China’s economic growth heavily
relies on the consumption of natural
resources, energy, and cheap human labor.
Due to the scarcity of other natural
resources and technology deficiency,
coal is still the dominant source of energy
(Zhang and Crooks 2012). China
is the largest coal producer in the world
and produces around half of global
consumption (Bawa et al. 2010). Although
China’s National Energy Agency
claimed that coal use had been declining,
international observers doubted
the claim because of the increased coal
power plant capacity in 2015 (Albert
and Xu 2016). In the past 20 years, car
ownership has skyrocketed with the
fast urbanization. In 2016, China has
172 million cars (Xinhua 2016). Rapid
urbanization and car ownership significantly
increase energy consumption
and emissions, which in turn jeopardize
air pollution (Liu and Diamond 2005).
Second, air pollution is the most
visible pollution, and its threat to economic
sustainability and public health is
equivalent to (if not higher than) other
89