User:Mannerheimren/Township and Village Enterprises

History

Before the Reform and Opening

Although Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping was reported to have said that TVEs "appear(ed) out of nowhere" in 1987, the industrial development in rural China could be traced back to as early as 1950s. During this period, rural enterprises, often of neglectable size, served as a supplement to those state-owned enterprises (SOE), which mainly focused on heavy industrial sectors, and were established by the people's communes and bridges to support agricultural production and to produce rural social products for local and domestic needs. The political turmoil between late 1950s and early 1960s at one time halted the development of rural enterprises and some were suspended. Nevertheless, encouraged by the Chinese government to produce rural social goods, the enthusiasm of rural enterprises increased again in 1965. According to official records, the number of rural enterprise was about 122,000 in 1965, and quickly increased to 447,000 in 1970

Environmental issue

Damages

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), TVEs in China is responsible for more than 10 billion metric tons of industrial waste water, which is more than half of the total. Worse still, this industrial wastewater directly discharges into the water resource without any treatment and control. Polluted water damaged the environment, causing 10 to 20 million hectares of polluted land by 2001. Furthermore, reports showed that artisanal mines, which mostly are TVEs, leak hundreds of tonnes of mercury annually. In the meantime, as many TVEs were built near the population density areas, these pollutions not only cost damaged the environment but also threatened the population's health nearby. In general, the analysis found that TVEs' area residents have a more significant rate of diseases and a shorter lifetime; the unregulated activities made Chinese rural areas pay a huge price for environmental damage. Below is the table of TVEs' pollution in 1998.

TVEs pollution in China 1995

Controls

In response to the climate crisis brought by the TVEs, the government passed a regulation in 1979 that "The transfer of products and production involving toxic and hazardous substances to rural areas is prohibited unless accompanied by the transfer of effective pollution control equipment." The result was unsatisfactory: many harmful activities still existed and ignored the regulation. Moreover, TVEs were based on old and polluted types of equipment that were different from urban spaces, so it was hard to control the pollution due to their locations and large numbers. During the 8th five-year plan, the Chinese government enhanced the policy to deal with the worsening climate crisis. Although the changes focused more on urban cities, TVEs pollution was impacted, especially wastewater.