For those of you taking a beating from outsourcing and offshoring, there may be a glimmer of hope from an unexpected source.

After decades of making economic growth its number one priority, the country might finally be gearing up to begin enforcing its environmental laws.

According to the World Bank, 16 out of 20 of the world’s most polluted cities are in China. The direct costs to the country’s economy is estimated to be hundreds of billions of dollars yearly. The Chinese government estimates that more than 300 million people living in rural areas drink water contaminated by chemical and other substances.

The China Daily newspaper reports that complaints by the general public about environmental problems have been increasing by 20% annually in recent years. But the real catalyst for change might have been provided by November’s spill of 100 metric tons of cancer-causing benzene compounds into the Songhua River after a chemical plant explosion.
The spill disrupted the water supply to the northern city of Harbin for several days, leaving four million people without public water services. It also threatened to become an international incident when the chemicals flowed into Russia’s Amur River.

The Chinese government has already earmarked 10 billion ruan (about $1.2 billion) for cleanup costs. Total economic impact of the event is expected to be several billion dollars.

According to China Daily, the spill led to replacement of the country’s top environmental managers, and new leaders are talking tough. Pointing out that more than half of China’s 21,000 chemical companies are located near the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, which provide drinking water for tens of millions of people, Zhou Shengxian said an accident could lead to “disastrous consequences.”

“Facts have proved that prosperity at the expense of the environment is very superficial and very weak,” Zhou said at a news conference during the annual meeting of China’s parliament. According to the newspaper, Zhou’s agency said its goals for 2006 include better prevention and control of pollution in major rivers and stricter environmental law enforcement. He also pledged reforms that better account for the cost of development, including changing the pricing system of water and energy so they reflect the scarcity of the resources.

Given reports that the Chinese government has in the past often disregarded its own environmental laws to promote rapid economic growth, stricter enforcement of regulations currently on the books would be a good start.

What all this means to finishers in China—and, by extension, to their competitors here in the United States—remains to be seen. The finishing industry, after all, accounts for just one small (but significant) piece of the environmental pie. But clearly, this is one area where the playing field has not been level for finishers trying to keep operations in this country. From that perspective, any crackdown on polluters in China would be welcome.

Now, if we could just get laws on the books in China for a minimum wage, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, safe workplaces…