The Environment and Climate Change

A senior State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) official said dereliction of duty by local officials in Gansu and Hunan provinces is to blame for two major environmental pollution incidents in August and September, according to a September 15 China Daily article. Pollution from factories resulted in more than 250 children being hospitalized for lead poisoning in Gansu and the shutdown of a drinking water source used by 80,000 people in Hunan, according to news reports. Pan Yue, Deputy Director of SEPA, described both cases as "typical examples of pollution problems caused by a dereliction of duty of local governments and environment bureaus [sic]," according to the China Daily article.

Central government officials announced that they will punish local government officials for protecting local enterprises that pollute the environment, according to a September 15 China Daily article and a September 28 Xinhua article. The announcement came after a series of pollution incidents and the finding that pollution increased in the first half of 2006, according to the China Daily article and an August 20 Xinhua article. Specifically, the emission of major pollutants increased in 17 provinces over the first six months of 2006, even though the government pledged to reduce emissions by 2 percent this year, according to the August 20 Xinhua article.

Rails for the Qinghai-Tibet railroad were laid at 16,641 feet (5,072 meters), the highest elevation that the railway will reach, on August 24, according to a Xinhua report. Vice Minister of Railways Sun Yongfu acknowledged that laying the tracks at Qinghai's Tanggula Pass was "a tough part" of the project. High altitude and frigid conditions pose "a major challenge," according to La Youyu, deputy director-general of the project's headquarters. He said that nearly 300 miles of track cross frozen earth that is "vulnerable to climate change" and can thaw during summer and "distend the railway base in winter." Railway design incorporates measures that include "heat preservation, slope protection, and roadbed ventilation in frozen earth areas" in order to "avoid possible dangers," La said.

Yu Yungui, a senior official in the Rikaze (Shigatse) prefectural government in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), announced that the government plans to extend the Tibet-Qinghai railway westward from Lhasa to Rikaze city, the TAR's second-largest city, according to an August 9 Xinhua report. The extension would total about 270 kilometers (about 170 miles). Yu said that officials expect the project to take three years, suggesting that it would be completed some time in 2009. Jampa Phuntsog (Xiangba Pingcuo), the Chairman of the TAR government, told reporters in March that he expects the railway to reach Rikaze during the period covered by the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), according to a March 13 China Tibet Information Center (CTIC) report.

The official investigation into the June 8 assault of Three Gorges resettlement activist Fu Xiancai has concluded that his injuries were self-inflicted, according to a July 26 Human Rights in China (HRIC) press release. HRIC reported that the Zigui county Public Security Bureau (PSB) in Hubei province found no footprints other than those of Fu's at the scene of the incident, and that this finding served as the basis for the PSB's decision to drop its criminal investigation. The PSB also cited the medical conclusion of forensic experts who examined Fu's injuries to support its decision to drop the case.