In The Guardian, Jonathan Watts asks Beijingers-on-the-street what role environmental protection plays in their daily lives. A magazine editor tells him:
To China’s critics in the west, I would say, don’t just complain, share your technology with us. China is the factory of the world. We make all the Christmas trees and the gifts that go under them for the developed countries. They want more so we make more. In the US, they don’t want pollution so they close their factories and move them here. They are happy to buy the cheap goods we make. But then they come back and blame us for pollution because there are so many factories here.