Edward Wong, An Unlikely Jihadist, Denouncing Assad in Mandarin; A new video seems to show a Han Chinese rebel in the fight for Syria. New York Times, Mar 30, 2013.
Edward Wong, Cost of Environmental Damage in China Growing Rapidly Amid industrialization; Price tag for pollution and effect on ecosystem tripple in 6 years. New York Times, Mar 30, 2013.
Quote:
(a) "The cost of environmental degradation in China was about $230 billion in 2010, or 3.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product — three times that in 2004, in local currency terms, an official Chinese news report said this week.
"The statistic came from a study by the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, which is part of the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
(b) "[S]aid Alistair Thornton, a China economist at the research firm IHS Global Insight[,] 'Digging a hole and filling it back in again gives you G.D.P. growth. It doesn’t give you economic value. A lot of the activity in China over the last few years has been digging holes to fill them back in again — anything from bailing out failing solar companies to ignoring the ‘externalities’ of economic growth.'
My comment:
(a) Officially China surpassed Japan as the second largest economy in 2Q10--when both government revealed its GDP figures.
(b) Official GDP of China in 2010 was 10.3%. Quotation (a) means that effectively GDP growth that year was 6.8% (10.3 minus 3.5), which does not even include some other parts of "digging holes to fill them back in again" such as bailouts.
Note:
(a) Duane Reade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_Reade
(Duane Reade Inc, a subsidiary of the Walgreen Company, is a chain of pharmacy and convenience stores, primarily located in New York City; section 1 History)
(b) The report mentions "Dumbo Neighborhood Alliance, a residents’ group."
(i) Dumbo, Brooklyn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbo,_Brooklyn