Beijing-Tokyo Forum promotes joint environmental protection
- By Chen Boyuan
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 26, 2015
Environmental protection is among the sectors in which China and Japan could enhance cooperation regardless of fluctuations in their bilateral political or economic relations, representatives of the two sides agreed at the 11th Beijing-Tokyo Forum.
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![Wang Hui, chief of the Information Office of the Beijing Municipal Government takes questions from the press on Oct. 25, 2015 at the 11th Beijing-Tokyo Forum held in Beijing. [Photo/China.org.cn]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20151026/001aa0ba3c161797dab005.jpg "Wang Hui, chief of the Information Office of the Beijing Municipal Government takes questions from the press on Oct. 25, 2015 at the 11th Beijing-Tokyo Forum held in Beijing. [Photo/China.org.cn]") |
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Wang Hui, chief of the Information Office of the Beijing Municipal Government takes questions from the press on Oct. 25, 2015 at the 11th Beijing-Tokyo Forum held in Beijing. [Photo by Chen Boyuan/China.org.cn] |
China has a pressing need to learn from Japan, among other countries possessing advanced environmental protection technologies, because China now faces the same environmental problems once threatening Japan.
The air pollution in Beijing is already a constant topic for Chinese media, which is getting tired of reporting the choking smog over the city and the succeeding high wind that disperse it at intervals for short-term relief.
Beijing did unveil tough measures to curb such pollution, but the most successful were hardly sustainable. During the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and other major events including the 2014 APEC Summit and the latest WWII anniversary military parade, the government banned most factory production within a certain perimeter and half of the motor vehicles that would normally be on the roads. Such measures did yield quick results but the cost was high.
"This is why we want to learn from Japan, because Beijing and Tokyo share so many similarities. Tokyo held the 1964 Olympic Games and faced heavy pollution both before and after the events," said Ms. Wang Hui, chief of the Information Office of the Beijing Municipal Government, speaking at the 11th Beijing-Tokyo Forum on Oct. 24. She was also the spokesperson for the bidding committee for the 2022 Winter Games.
"Beijing and Tokyo are both Olympic cities, and Tokyo is going to host the Summer Olympics again in 2020. Japan also held two Winter Olympics, Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998. Inevitably, we need to seek Japan's successful experience," said Wang.
She also said that such exchanges would be beneficial to the bilateral ties and the two countries should "actively seek to solve problems" rather than merely "complain".
Ibaragi Ryuta, Governor of Japan's Okayama Prefecture, stressed his successful experience in limiting the total amount of emissions, the most fundamental measure. "Mixing clean water and dirty water and building your chimneys higher do seem to reduce the density of pollutants, but they don’t really reduce pollution," he said.
Pan Tao, chief of the Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection said it would take at least 20-30 years to raise Beijing's air quality close to that of Tokyo, creating huge potential for advanced Japanese products and technologies for environmental protection.
"While we tend to lay the blame on Beijing on having too many people and cars, Tokyo may have even more cars, and its population density is no lower than Beijing, so that we should stop evading responsibilities," said Pan.
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