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China is the biggest threat to the world's future

Since Deng Xiaoping unleashed a series of reforms in 1978, China’s economic growth has been nothing short of phenomenal. It has brought more people out of poverty more quickly than any other country in history. But as its population swells to 1.3 billion and beyond, the Chinese authorities have had to take internationally unpopular decisions to safeguard their own interests.

Much of the criticism levelled at China is directed at its environmental record. China opens two new coal power plants every week, and has overtaken the US as the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. Now their glaciers are melting, much of their water is undrinkable and 670,000 people die prematurely every year because of pollution.

There have also been voices raised over China’s unscrupulous support for dictators in resource rich African countries, especially Sudan and Zimbabwe. And there are those who blame China’s artificially devalued currency and their acquisition of savings in dollars for the global economic crisis. But to what extent should a developing country really be blamed for the world’s problems?

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