Western-funded green groups ‘stir up trouble’ in China
Beijing think tank blames environmentalists for damaging China's reputation in Mekong region
Western-funded green groups are wrongly accusing mainland companies of causing environment destruction and creating social problems in Southeast Asia to restrain China's economic influence in countries along the Mekong River, a top government think tank claims in a new report published yesterday.
Two studies, part of a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences annual report on co-operation and development in the Greater Mekong sub-region, admitted that agricultural, mining and hydro projects with Chinese investment had caused adverse environmental impact in countries including Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.
It is true that Chinese companies were not doing enough to protect the local ecology, but environmental groups' exaggerated claims have severely damaged China's reputation
But international environmental groups working in the region, most of which receive funding from Western countries, were also "irresponsibly attacking Chinese investors and misleading local communities with biased reports", aimed at limiting China's economic influence in the region, the studies said.
Such negative publicity, without granting Chinese companies an opportunity to reply, could also cripple China's global investment ambitions outside the Mekong region, the studies warned.
China has already suffered economic losses after several Chinese-funded projects - including the Myitsone Dam and a copper mine in Myanmar and a real estate project in Cambodia - were either suspended or scrapped following protests over environmental concerns by local communities.
"It is true that Chinese companies were not doing enough to protect the local ecology, but environmental groups' exaggerated claims have severely damaged China's reputation," said Professor Lu Guangsheng from Yunnan University's institute of Southeast Asian studies, one of the authors of the studies.
The studies said some environmental groups wrongly blamed China for a prolonged drought along the Mekong in 2009 and 2010, simply because China has constructed 11 dams on the upper reaches of the river inside China.