Bad air is not something that came to China with its current industrial revolution. During and after the Mao era the air in China’s cities was terrible. Sanitation was awful.

It looks to me like China will reach a good balance between adequate wealth and reasonable environmental conditions faster than most countries have done. Here, in the US, we certainly pulled ourselves up financially well before we quit setting our rivers on fire.

http://cleantechnica.com/2011/10/28/china-now-world-leader-in-wind-and-hydro/

But the discussion here is about how China is going gangbusters at installing clean energy generation.

I do not agree with your statement that the Chinese government is working to make the environment in order to make them look better. If you’ve spent any time in China you will know that China has some terrible pollution problems, sometimes the air is so thick that it feels like you could break off a piece and chew it. The Chinese government recognizes that it must make people’s lives better in order to stay in power. Raising the population out of dire poverty was the first job. Now that they have made significant progress on that problem they are able to concentrate on other problems.

China is working to improve its climatic problems. They are not denying climate change and blocking clean energy as are some western democracies.

Does that make them “superior”? Of course not. But let’s give them credit for things they are doing right. We could learn from them.

These are merely words. The Chinese government is first and foremost interested in increasing GDP – environment is a way to make them look “better.” Look at their failed eco-cities, and their most recent venture with Singapore, the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco City, is a horrible waste of every resource in the name of creating a “green” city.

If you know anything, that country is full of false promises by the government. The government there does ANYTHING to save face and try to increase its international reputation. And this is done by cheating, lying, etc. Look at their handling of everything, from the bullet train incident (where they initially buried the trains in the ground at the site of the accident) to the Beijing 2008 olympics (underage gymnasts, etc.).

The authoritarian government style has benefits, like enforcing paid-plastic bags at super markets, but what the Chinese government says and believes are two (oftentimes conflicting) things.

(See my comment on Toyotas 600+ miles range battery).