A friend of mine who works in Southeast Asia calls himself a “China vegetarian.” What he means is that whenever he travels to China, he stops eating meat.
He may need to trim his diet even more.
That China is a budding environmental nightmare is no secret. The latest news pinpoints the dumping of tons of toxic chemicals into two of its largest rivers, including the Yangtze, poisoning the waters to the extent that Shanghai issued safety warnings about eating seafood from the area.
For China to take its place among the advanced countries of the world, it must wise up to the harm it is inflicting on its precious natural resources, not to mention its own people. Anything less, and the world may just decide it could use a little less Chinese in its diet.