President Hu Jintao has condemned some provinces for failing to toe Beijing’s line of pursuing a “concept of scientific development”, and instead seeking short-term growth at the expense of the environment.
In a recent speech to provincial governors, Mr. Hu criticised local officials for focusing on short-term growth at the expense of both long-term benefits and sustainable development.
“Some local officials, in their concept of development, care only about tangible achievements and neglect potential achievements; care about short-term results but pay little attention to long-term development.
“To achieve such goals, some officials have even fabricated achievements,” Mr. Hu said in the speech published yesterday by the party magazine Qiushi.
“There is a tendency for officials to seek economic growth for growth’s sake. They are seeking to achieve short-term growth at the cost of damaging natural resources and the environment,” he said.
Mr. Hu, who is the Communist Party’s general secretary, said such a model was not sustainable and would “result only in low efficiency, a low quality of development and frequent industrial safety incidents, and create structural contradictions in the economy”.
The mainland has seen a three-decades-long economic boom since it embraced capitalist reforms in 1978.
But the cost of the economic miracle has become glaringly obvious.
The rapid climb towards economic prosperity has wrought huge environmental damage, while the gap between rich and poor is growing.
Authorities have also failed to prevent food and industrial tragedies, social injustices and widespread fraud and corruption scandals - often at great cost to public health and lives.
Since he came to power six years ago, Mr. Hu has pushed pursuit of the so-called “scientific concept of development” and building a “harmonious society” - in an effort to correct imbalances stemming from the pattern of economic growth pursued by his predecessors.
Mr. Hu said some officials had failed to understand or implement the party’s central dictum of a “scientific concept of development”.
“Some localities and departments do not do enough to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas and between regions, and to promoting co-ordinated development among them,” Mr. Hu said.
If existing problems could not be solved in time, he warned, the ruling party could not overcome the difficulties and challenges ahead.
As a solution, Mr. Hu proposed measures to boost what he called the true implementation of the “scientific concept of development”.
Separately, at a New Year s gathering with non-communist politicians and other leaders yesterday, Mr. Hu also called for an effort this year to overcome these difficulties and challenges.
“We must actively carry forward the spirit of our [Sichuan] earthquake rescue, hosting of the Beijing Olympic Games and the spacemen’s walk, to face the difficulties ahead and overcome them,” Mr. Hu said.
He was speaking at a meeting with members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the top advisory body to the ruling Communist Party.
In a reference to the global financial crisis, Mr. Hu said Beijing would participate in the international community’s efforts to deal with the massive downturn this year.
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Hu Criticises Destructive Growth Plans
Provincial officials lambasted
Cary Huang in Beijing
2 January 2008
President Hu Jintao has condemned some provinces for failing to toe Beijing’s line of pursuing a “concept of scientific development”, and instead seeking short-term growth at the expense of the environment.
In a recent speech to provincial governors, Mr. Hu criticised local officials for focusing on short-term growth at the expense of both long-term benefits and sustainable development.
“Some local officials, in their concept of development, care only about tangible achievements and neglect potential achievements; care about short-term results but pay little attention to long-term development.
“To achieve such goals, some officials have even fabricated achievements,” Mr. Hu said in the speech published yesterday by the party magazine Qiushi.
“There is a tendency for officials to seek economic growth for growth’s sake. They are seeking to achieve short-term growth at the cost of damaging natural resources and the environment,” he said.
Mr. Hu, who is the Communist Party’s general secretary, said such a model was not sustainable and would “result only in low efficiency, a low quality of development and frequent industrial safety incidents, and create structural contradictions in the economy”.
The mainland has seen a three-decades-long economic boom since it embraced capitalist reforms in 1978.
But the cost of the economic miracle has become glaringly obvious.
The rapid climb towards economic prosperity has wrought huge environmental damage, while the gap between rich and poor is growing.
Authorities have also failed to prevent food and industrial tragedies, social injustices and widespread fraud and corruption scandals - often at great cost to public health and lives.
Since he came to power six years ago, Mr. Hu has pushed pursuit of the so-called “scientific concept of development” and building a “harmonious society” - in an effort to correct imbalances stemming from the pattern of economic growth pursued by his predecessors.
Mr. Hu said some officials had failed to understand or implement the party’s central dictum of a “scientific concept of development”.
“Some localities and departments do not do enough to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas and between regions, and to promoting co-ordinated development among them,” Mr. Hu said.
If existing problems could not be solved in time, he warned, the ruling party could not overcome the difficulties and challenges ahead.
As a solution, Mr. Hu proposed measures to boost what he called the true implementation of the “scientific concept of development”.
Separately, at a New Year s gathering with non-communist politicians and other leaders yesterday, Mr. Hu also called for an effort this year to overcome these difficulties and challenges.
“We must actively carry forward the spirit of our [Sichuan] earthquake rescue, hosting of the Beijing Olympic Games and the spacemen’s walk, to face the difficulties ahead and overcome them,” Mr. Hu said.
He was speaking at a meeting with members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the top advisory body to the ruling Communist Party.
In a reference to the global financial crisis, Mr. Hu said Beijing would participate in the international community’s efforts to deal with the massive downturn this year.
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