"While the government struggles to keep the country鈥檚 airways clean, these companies are enabling ordinary Chinese citizens to take environmental health into their own hands," writes Susan Chan Shifflett.
China鈥檚 hottest tech giants 鈥 Alibaba, Xiaomi, and Baidu 鈥 are making a splash on a global scale. But even as they battle for market shares, they are also helping Chinese people fight against pollution with newly released tech products that monitor air, water, and food pollution. While the government struggles to keep the country鈥檚 airways clean, these companies are enabling ordinary Chinese citizens to take environmental health into their own hands.Increasingly, Chinese people are eating, breathing, and drinking pollution. Here are some sobering statistics:
Government Action Not Enough
China鈥檚 government is trying to address the smog by shutting down coal-fired power plants and limiting vehicles on the road.
The government recently announced an ambitious coal cap target, which would limit annual coal consumption to 4.2 million tons by 2020. This is no small feat for a country that is currently responsible for half of the world鈥檚 coal consumption. However, even these measures are not enough to clean up the air in the short-term. A study by Shanghai researchers concluded that Beijing was close to 鈥渦ninhabitable鈥 due to off-the-chart concentrations of PM2.5, harmful air particulates.
Some experts say that when the U.S. Embassy in Beijing began releasing its own air quality index information it prodded the government to make PM2.5 readings public. Now it鈥檚 not the U.S. but Chinese companies who are pushing the envelope. By empowering citizens with devices and apps to access environmental data in real-time, companies like Alibaba, Baidu, and Xiaomi are raising levels of public awareness, and putting pressure on the government to quicken its pace.
Transparency continues to be a challenge for fighting pollution in China. After all, the Chinese government blocked the U.S. Embassy in Beijing鈥檚 air pollution readings as recently as fall 2014 during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. However, if Chinese companies take it upon themselves to address the pollution issue, it will be much harder for the government to justify clamping down on its own tech darlings. Premier Li Keqiang last year declared a 鈥渨ar on pollution,鈥 and these tools are part of the arsenal for the war.
Getting Tech Savvy on Pollution
The trail was blazed by Alibaba, China鈥檚 largest online commerce company, which registered the largest global initial public offering (IPO) ever, raising $25 billion in one day last year. In April of last year, Alibaba鈥檚 founder, Jack Ma, announced the company鈥檚 release of water pollution kits. Testing kits sell for $10; they can identify pollutants in freshwater sources and users can upload results online to a digital map.
A few months later, at an Internet conference, Ma made a dig at Xiaomi Corporation鈥檚 founder and CEO Lei Jun: how much does making a good smartphone matter when the air and water are so bad?
The following month, Xiaomi 鈥 the world鈥檚 third-largest smartphone maker, sometimes referred to as China鈥檚 Apple 鈥搑esponded with the release of its own home air purifier, the Mi Air Purifier, which sends pollution readings to mobile phones to alert users of high level of contaminants. As if on cue, at the time of the product鈥檚 unveiling, the outside air pollution was 15 times the World Health Organization recommended level for 24 hour exposure.
Not to be outdone, Baidu 鈥 China鈥檚 largest Internet search service provider 鈥 announced its version of smart chopsticks called kuai sou, which cleverly means 鈥渇ast search鈥 in Chinese, at its annual world meeting on September 3 of last year. The chopstick idea was originally borne out of a company April Fool鈥檚 Day joke. The prototype shown looks similar to regular chopsticks, and collects four types of information 鈥 water pH, temperature, oil quality, and salt level 鈥 which is transmitted via Bluetooth through the tail of the chopstick. If the tested food is high quality, LED lights at the end of the chopsticks will turn blue, and if of poor quality, red.
And even China鈥檚 NGOs are getting in the mix. The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), a local environmental NGO founded by prominent environmentalist and 乐鱼 体育 Global Fellow Ma Jun, launched a new cell phone app that lists polluting factories in a name-and-shame tactic to keep companies accountable.
One could argue that these businesses are simply capitalizing on the fears of the public. Regardless, their products are placing pressure on the government to act and allowing the people to take matters into their own hands.
Cleaning up China鈥檚 air and water will require a joint top-down and bottom-up effort engaging a variety of stakeholders 鈥 companies, civil society, and ordinary citizens. Lest we in the West feel smug, it鈥檚 worth remembering that Los Angeles in the 1960s faced similar problems and finding solutions takes time. But the government is acting, and innovative technology produced in China can make the process faster and more effective.
After all, as Lo Sze Ping, chief executive officer of WWF China once said in reference to China鈥檚 meteoric economic development, 鈥淭he big irony is that we drive BMWs and drink polluted water.鈥
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author.
Image Credit: Flickr/John Chandler
China鈥檚 global footprint isn鈥檛 just an economic one, it鈥檚 an environmental one. From BRI investments in Africa and Asia to its growing presence in Latin America, understanding China鈥檚 motivations, who stands to gain - and who stands to lose - is critical to informing smart US foreign policy. Read more
