MNC Polluters

More on the environmental front today. One of the English language rags in China put this op ed piece out there for western consumption. On one hand, I agree that western companies should hold themselves to a higher standard, even if the government doesn't. On the other hand, the article is a bit over the top given the statistics he is relying on (western companies represent .0142 of the problem).

An environmental organization named "Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs" recently released the "Name list of enterprises violating environmental protection rules." More than 7,000 enterprises have their names on the list. Of this, most are domestic enterprises, and more than 100 are multinational corporations. Some of these 100 foreign enterprises are even major polluters. Among them are some World Top 500 enterprises such as Pepsi, Whirlpool and Bosch, and some famous brands such as Nissin, Kao, etc.

Most of these transnational enterprises are European and American companies with good reputation for environmental protection. For instance, a Japanese enterprise, according to the investigation, has a total of eight local companies in Japan and seven of them reported zero pollution emissions. But in China, its company even failed to reach basic emission standards.

It is universally acknowledged that European and American countries adopt high standards in the areas of environmental protection, welfare, health security, etc. They should not have any difficulties in meeting Chinese standards technically and financially. We are so sorry to see such a large "gap". Obviously, some multinational enterprises use double standard in China.

When explaining why there are losing senses of responsibility after entering China, they usually claim that they are just making adjustment to the Chinese market. This is really a lame argument. Yes, the Chinese market has not been standardized and supervision is still far from mature, but this should not become the excuse for multinational enterprises to justify their behavior violating environmental regulation and laws and abandoning the fundamental industrial moral standards in China.

I couldn't find much running a Google search of "Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs". Assuming for the sake of argument that it is a legitimate organization, I'd say that the list of 7,000 is a bit low. Presumably that is just the 7,000 largest polluters.

If Pepsi & Co. are among the heavy polluters in China, US management should make some changes. China is an environmental disaster. It is one thing for the Chinese to trash their own country; it is something entirely different for US companies to take advantage of lax environmental laws and oversight. When US officials travel to China waiving the American flag and demanding change, the argument becomes that much more difficult to make when we are part of the problem.