China's environment suffers as industrialization rockets
29 January 2007
A new report by China's top scientific institutions says the country's environmental protection has failed to match its economic growth. China's Modernization Report 2007, developed by the country's top scientific institutions, ranked China 100th out of 118 countries for "ecological protection", state media reported. It had the same ranking three years ago. The report projected that China would become an industrialized economy, on par with developed countries in the 1960s, by 2015. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Pan Yue, deputy of the State Environmental Protection Administration, blamed business groups and local officials for the country's high levels of pollution.