Export Goods, Import Pollution

China's export-driven economy is choking the Chinese. In big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, residents are all feeling the effect of bad air. Being the world's factory is in fact a bad deal for the Chinese because this means China imports energy and raw materials to produce goods, but exports them for others to consume. The pollution is left behind in China.

From the above chart, we see China exports annually 200 billion US dollars more goods than it imports. Furthermore, what China imports are mostly oil, natural gas, coal, and other raw materials for the purpose of manufacturing consumer goods to be exported to other countries. On the other hand, the US imports 800 billion US dollars more goods than it exports. No wonder it has better air and less pollution than China.

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