Historian: China's push towards green development 'unstoppable'

Standing on a busy street corner in a Chinese city in near silence as electric vehicles glide past rows of trees was a ‘strange experience’ for Australian historian John Queripel, who has visited China five times in the last decade. The experience changed his initial view of how a modern metropolis should sound and look. ‘It really is a transformation, an acknowledgement of how seriously China is taking the challenges posed by the global ecological crisis,’ said Queripel, an author and social commentator based in Newcastle, Australia. He frequently shares his views on China’s green development through various articles he writes. Acknowledging that China has experienced rapid economic development over the past half-century, he said that such growth often came at the cost of environmental damage. ‘However, in the last decade, that has changed dramatically as China has increasingly realised the importance of a good natural environment as the basis for meeting human needs,’ he said. Queripel believes this environmental commitment has propelled China into a global leadership position in fields ranging from renewable energy development and electric vehicle production to reforestation programmes. ‘On any visit to China, you are bound to see so many solar panels and wind turbines,’ he said. He added that the move towards clean energy and a sustainable environment in China is now unstoppable, and the very real possibility that China could become the world’s first electric nation, with electricity increasingly generated from renewable sources, is a remarkable achievement. Another aspect that caught his attention is that ‘China is gradually realising the importance of the power of the past in shaping the new,’ he wrote in a recently published opinion piece. ‘China’s 5,000-year-old traditions are increasingly informing government policy-making, and a respect not only for Chinese traditions but all traditions is the basis of the Global Civilization Initiative,’ Queripel wrote. ‘On my visits to China, I have been fortunate to experience some of this first-hand, from staying in a hutong in Beijing, spending time in Pingyao, to visiting historical sites such as the Terracotta Warriors, the Yungang Grottoes, and the Hanging Temple of Hengshan. Also, modern Chinese films and artworks are increasingly referencing China’s past,’ he said. When he first visited China in 2016, Queripel was impressed by the ‘highly efficient and extensive public transport system, especially the high-speed rail network, which has continued to expand and now stretches for around 50,000 kilometres.’ ‘The length of the high-speed rail network exceeds the combined total of all other similar networks in the world. It is phenomenal. For people my age in China, the changes that have occurred must feel like culture shock. The change is immense,’ the 72-year-old told Xinhua.