Slump tilts priorities for China’s industry

“It’s a good thing that officials are working faster,” said a manager at the Sanhe site,who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak for the company. “The economy is looking better now.”

In the rush to invest $585 billion in stimulus spending and revive flagging industrial production,China has at least temporarily backpedaled on some environmental restraints imposed,though with limited impact,during the country’s long boom.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection,citing the urgency of fighting the downturn,adopted a new “green passage” policy that speeds approval of industrial projects. In one three-day stretch late last year,it gave the green light to 93 new investment plans valued at $38 billion.

Provincial environmental agencies quickly followed suit,cutting the allotted time limit to review environmental impact assessments from the maximum 60 days to as few as five days in one province. Here in Hebei,the parched dust-bowl province that surrounds Beijing,officials announced approval of four new cement plants in a single day in January. Environmentalists say they worry that the government has squandered a chance to use the downturn to put China on a cleaner growth path,and has instead laid the foundation for another toxic cycle of hypergrowth.

“This is the moment to decide whether we want to keep the old growth model or change it,” said Ma Jun,director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. “But people worry that this new round of development might generate more pollution for the future.”

China’s environmental movement has also been reeling from the unexplained absence of its most outspoken Communist Party supporter,Pan Yue,the No. 2 official in the environment ministry. For several years,Pan led an unusually public campaign to blacklist polluters and impose more rigorous environmental inspections. He galvanized the media in “environmental protection storms.”