Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 6.6
FISCAL SURPLUSES IN CHINA (AS A PERCENTAGE OF GDP)
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Govt Savings Rate
3.2%
3.3%
4.1%
4.2%
5.0%
6.4%
6.4%
China GDP
1.45
1.64
1.93
2.26
2.71
3.49
4.52
(2011 US$trillion)
Govt Savings
46.4
54.1
79.1
94.9
135.5
223.4
289.3
(2011 US$billion)
Source of data
: Govt savings (Ma, 2010); China GDP (World Bank); GDP Savings (author's calculations).
and energy eiciency. In 2009, China purportedly invested US$34.6 billion
in renewable energy development, far exceeding the United States, which
posted the second highest level of renewable energy investment of US$18.6
billion.
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6.6.4 Policy Regime
he historical role of the CPC in setting broad economic development policy
has enhanced local control over speciic initiatives. An ideology that is prag-
matically focused on developing an electricity system that is cost competi-
tive, eicient, and supportive of scientiic development principles has led
to China tapping into its national savings to catalyze massive development
in wind power in some regions. As the next section will demonstrate, it has
done so through robust but gradualist policies aimed at inluencing behav-
ior in the sociocultural, technological, and economic realms.
Before moving onto the next section, the topic of gradualism merits
attention because gradualism deines the CPC's approach to policymaking
in wind power development (and indeed, in most other areas). In Mandarin
there is an expression favored by Deng Xiaoping to explain the CPC's
approach to policy making—“crossing the river by feeling for stones” (in
Mandarin
).
Decision making within the CPC has been the heavily inluenced by the
Great Leap Forward, which was a policy between 1958 and 1961 that was
intended to catalyze a rapid transition from agrarian to industrial prac-
tice in China but instead resulted in famine and the deaths of millions.
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Accordingly, since Deng's era of leadership China's leaders have enacted pol-
icy in small steps, testing out the impact on a small scale and adapting policy
based on stakeholder feedback, before launching more consorted eforts
which are further monitored and revised as required. In the next section,
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