Mayor's Olympian Task: Readying Beijing for '08
BEIJING -- China's capital is grappling with difficult environmental problems as it prepares for the 2008 Olympic Games, said Mayor Wang Qishan.
Mr. Wang, meeting yesterday with a delegation of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, said construction is well underway on infrastructure projects including new highways, an expanded subway system and facilities to host the events. Many of these projects will help support the city's development far beyond the games, he said.
The city is facing more challenges in making other improvements, he said, including cracking down on reckless driving and improving the environment. In bidding for the games, Beijing pledged a "Green Olympics."
"It is very easy to construct a building," said Mr. Wang. "However, it is very hard to change the habits of people."
Many of Beijing's -- and China's -- problems lie in the sheer numbers of people, he said. Beijing is home to about 15.4 million people, and the population is expected to increase by millions as more farmers move into major cities.
"This is something of great difficulty for us, the contradiction of population and the environment -- for us and the whole of China," said Mr. Wang. "We are facing this problem."
To cut down on pollution in Beijing, officials are moving factories out of the city and tightening emission standards on cars to what they have said will be the strictest in China. However, Mr. Wang said several power plants in the city continue to use pollution-producing coal. Also of increasing concern, he said, is a water shortage caused by a lack of precipitation.
Years of overuse and growth have worsened the shortage, he said. "In historic times, we had plenty of water," said Mr. Wang. Increasingly, deeper drilling is needed to reach aquifers.
Many of the infrastructure projects require the relocation of thousands of people. Mr. Wang said the city in most cases now doesn't move people without their consent. Forced relocation of residents to make way for government or commercial projects has been a source of friction between people and authorities across the country, sometimes sparking protests.
The scale in Beijing is enormous, with some 200,000 families relocated last year alone. "But we didn't finish what we planned because we didn't succeed in persuading some people and we are trying to get them to understand us," Mr. Wang said.
As Beijing's mayor, Mr. Wang, 57 years old, is among an elite group of Chinese officials and a member of the Communist Party's powerful Central Committee. A former president of the China Construction Bank, one of China's major state-run commercial banks, Mr. Wang was appointed acting mayor in 2003 after his predecessor stepped down over his poor handling of the SARS epidemic. Since being named mayor in 2004, Mr. Wang has been a popular leader due to his relatively open style, and most recently, for the relaxing of a ban on fireworks in the city over the Lunar New Year holiday.
Yesterday, Mr. Wang sought to make light of the task in front of him. Besides preparing Beijing for the Olympics, he oversees an area that stretches far beyond the actual city of Beijing -- an area of more than 16,000 square kilometers whose residents include millions of farmers living at subsistence levels.
"I suppose only Mr. Bloomberg can be compared to with me in terms of the difficulty we have in managing the city," he said, referring to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. But, he added, with a smile: "I have far more difficulty than him."
北京市长的奥运重担
北京市长王岐山表示，为了迎接2008年奥运会，北京市正在努力解决棘手的环境问题。
王岐山周三会见美国报纸编辑协会(American Society of Newspaper Editors)代表团时表示，基础设施项目的建设正在顺利进行，包括新建高速公路、扩建地铁系统和举办奥运会比赛项目的其他设施。他说，许多项目在奥运会结束后的许多年里都将支持北京的发展。
他说，北京在其它方面作出改善面临著更多挑战，如打击野蛮驾驶和改善环境等等。当年北京申办奥运会的口号是“绿色奥运。”
王岐山说，建设很容易，但积习难改。
他说，北京，乃至中国的许多问题都在于人口过多。北京的常驻人口约为1,540万人。农民纷纷涌入大城市打工，预计北京市的人口还将增加几百万。
王岐山说，人口和环境的矛盾是目前最大的困难之一，对北京和整个中国都是如此。
为了降低北京的污染，政府将工厂搬迁到城外，并提高了汽车的排放标准，据称这是中国最严格的汽车排放标准。不过王岐山表示，市内几家燃煤电厂还会造成污染。他还说，另一个让人倍感担忧的问题就是降水稀少造成的供水短缺。
王岐山称，多年的过度使用和增长让短缺形势愈加恶化。而从历史角度来看，北京一直不缺水。现在，为了达到蓄水层，水井打得越来越深了。
许多基础设施项目都需要动迁上千居民。王岐山说，现在在未得到居民同意的情况下一般不会进行拆迁。强制拆迁为政府或商业项目让路是导致百姓与政府摩擦的原因之一，有时甚至会引发抗议示威。
北京市的拆迁规模很大，仅去年就有20万户家庭左右。但王岐山表示，预定计划并未完成，因为没能成功地说服一些家庭搬迁，现在正设法获得他们的理解。
57岁的王岐山是中国共产党中央委员会的委员。他曾担任中国建设银行(China Construction Bank)的行长。2003年，北京市前任市长因对非典型肺炎(SARS)处理不力而下台后，王岐山被任命为代市长。自2004年正式担任北京市市长以来，由于相对开放的办事风格和在最近解除了春节期间燃放烟花爆竹的禁令，他一直颇受民众欢迎。
王岐山希望以轻松的姿态应对面前的任务。除了准备北京奥运会之外，他还要管理远大于北京城区的整个北京市，这个16,000多平方公里的地区还有数百万仅处于温饱水平的农民。
他说，在管理城市的难度方面，看来只有纽约市长布隆博格(Michael Bloomberg)能和他相比。不过他笑著补充说，他的困难可要远远超过布隆博格。
