Goldmark: China's brave environmentalist

Noticed how much Chinese scandal is in the news lately? Apple's suppliers there have been caught using toxic chemicals that injure their employees. Then there's the unfolding political drama involving Bo Xilai, the ousted mayor of Chongqing, and his wife, who may have arranged the killing of a British businessman. Will that mess threaten the orderly transition to power later this year of China's new designated paramount leader, Xi Jinping?

But it's important to learn about a country's heroes as well as its scandals. Ma Jun is a Chinese hero whose work is making things better for us here, as well as for China.

Ma Jun is China's bravest and most prominent environmentalist. He and colleagues conducted the investigation that reported the impact on employees of those toxins used by Apple's suppliers. Ma argues passionately that it is wrong for China to focus only on economic development without worrying as well about environment and the quality of life. That matters on our shores. China's air pollution doesn't stay there -- some of it floats across the Pacific and lands on our West Coast. It's a crowded, interdependent little planet we live on.

Ma, who established the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in Beijing, China's most widely followed nonprofit organization in the environmental area, offers a distinctive interpretation of the teachings of Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who launched China on its present path of headlong industrial development. He says Deng sought more balanced, environmentally sensitive growth.

He and the institute have developed a shrewd strategy that allows them to give the public a dramatic picture of what is happening to China's air and water, and at the same time provides some protection against political retribution: They rely primarily on official government statistics.

Now everyone, including the Chinese, knows that there are a lot of phony figures floating around China, and that often the books are cooked -- including the government's books. But if government statistics on air and water pollution are wrong, it's probably because they are understating the problems. Everybody knows that as well. So when the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs is able to roll out official figures on how truly horrific air and water pollution are, the public understands it's probably even worse.

One of Ma's boldest steps was to publish, based on official Chinese government statistics, a map of China showing how widespread and dangerous water pollution was in each province. This undoubtedly was not a big hit with the Politburo, even less so with provincial leaders.

About five years ago, the Chinese government made an effort to moderate the course of its overheated industrial expansion to ensure minimal environmental protections. But officials discovered that proclaiming that goal was easier than achieving it, so they passed a special law allowing the public access to official statistics on environmental issues. For Ma and his institute, that was just the opening they needed to issue a series of reports that commanded attention across the country.

In a closed, autocratic society, there are simply no guarantees, no matter how shrewd your strategy may be. When the bosses in a dictatorship decide to lower the boom on you, they usually find a way to do just that. It's anyone's guess how long or how far the Politburo will let Ma's kind of reporting on the environmental nightmare in China go.

Ma Jun surely understands all this. But for now, he and his institute are having a heck of a run -- and all of us on this planet benefit from his guts and ingenuity.

Peter Goldmark, a former budget director of New York State and former publisher of the International Herald Tribune, headed the climate program at the Environmental Defense Fund.