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China 'Forced World Bank' to Doctor Pollution Report
Spiegel ^ | July 4, 2007

Posted on 07/04/2007 8:05:12 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin2

China forced the World Bank to remove damning statistics from a pollution report, the Financial Times has revealed. Among the information cut was the figure that around 750,000 people die in China each year because of pollution.

According to a report in Tuesday's edition of the Financial Times, the Chinese government put pressure on the World Bank to take potentially damaging statistics out of a report on pollution in China.

Among the alleged cuts made were the report's finding that around 750,000 people in China are dying prematurely every year due to high levels of air pollution and poor water quality. Another deletion was a particularly damning map of China showing which parts of the country suffered from the most pollution-related deaths.

Chinese government officials asked the World Bank to cut the information when a draft was finished last year, the Financial Times reported. "The World Bank was told that it could not publish this information. It was too sensitive and could cause social unrest," one advisor to the study told the newspaper. Advisors said the World Bank "reluctantly" agreed to cut the information.

The report, titled "The Cost of Pollution in China," has not yet been officially published but a version which had been given at a conference in Beijing in March was available on the Internet.

* * *

The Financial Times was scathing of the Chinese government's behavior in an editorial published in its Wednesday edition. "Even in a China that is more capitalist than ever, the instinctive official response to bad news is to suppress it with all the force available to the nominally communist state," the newspaper wrote.

(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; environment; globalism; trade
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To: LucyT

Ping


41 posted on 07/09/2007 6:55:53 AM PDT by sweetiepiezer (Boycott China)
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To: Calpernia

Interesting and so scary.

There could be anything in that dust.

What are the metals that are in it?

Nuclear? or lead type?


42 posted on 07/10/2007 2:45:12 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny ( Today is a good day for working on some heavy praying. The world needs God to hear them.)
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To: nw_arizona_granny

I don’t know. But there have been viruses found.

Remember the story a few years ago about Russia having yellow snow?

Well, this is yellow dust.


43 posted on 07/10/2007 5:05:02 AM PDT by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
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To: Calpernia

Yes, I do recall the yellow snow.

The virus is enough to worry me.


44 posted on 07/10/2007 6:01:21 PM PDT by nw_arizona_granny ( Today is a good day for working on some heavy praying. The world needs God to hear them.)
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