Foreign media spoke highly of China's ban on plastic bags

Foreign news concerned about China's ban on plastic bags can be fully implemented

The world media have paid great attention to the "Notice on Restricting the Production, Sales and Use of Plastic Shopping Bags" recently announced by the Chinese government. They spoke highly of China's move, saying that China is moving towards the forefront of the world in the field of environmental protection.

At the same time, some media still have doubts about whether this policy can be effectively and comprehensively implemented in a big country like China.

China leads the world in environmental protection

China has announced that it will ban free plastic shopping bags nationwide from June 1 this year. The world media rushed to report or comment, saying that China's action was "bold" and a new effort in environmental protection. Although it is still difficult to classify China as "green", the growing superpower has taken a step forward on this controversial issue, according to a report on the website of Digital Journal magazine. China's move to ban plastic bags and encourage the use of cloth bags has surprised the whole world.

In a report entitled "China's bold move," the Toronto Star quoted an interviewee as saying, "I hope other countries will follow suit. If Canada can encourage everyone to use cloth bags, I think we will have a healthier environment. Go the way of China! "The governor of Ontario, Canada, McGuinty (Dalton McGuinty) has always criticized China's heavy reliance on coal power generation, but he gave China this action" full marks ", he said:" This is an example of how they can be a leader."

According to another Canadian media report, Toronto City Councillor Bilemick said: "If China does this... it's not the behavior of one or two crazy environmentalists, it's going to become a national phenomenon. Toronto Mayor David Miller said a "Chinese style" ban would not happen in Toronto because "we don't have the capacity to do that yet. But the interesting thing is that China is ahead of us in environmental protection."

Whether it can be implemented remains to be seen.

While making a lot of reports on China's move, many media in the world obviously still have doubts about whether China can implement this policy. In analyzing this point, many media have cited the example of Shenzhen taking the lead in banning plastic bags nationwide. According to the report, Shenzhen announced in November last year that the government was considering charging for the use of plastic bags and fined 50000 yuan to merchants who distributed plastic bags to customers for free, but this move was opposed by merchants.

On this issue, the media analyzed from many angles. From the public's point of view, foreign news agencies generally believe that the environmental awareness of ordinary Chinese people is still relatively weak, which is disadvantageous to the promotion of the policy of banning plastic bags. The British "Guardian" quoted a Chinese environmental protection official as saying that the Chinese public's environmental awareness is still very weak. At this point, public participation is very important. The newspaper analyzed that the change in the way of thinking is a slow process. The use of three-layer plastic bags to wrap eggs not only reflects the problems caused by food safety scandals, but also reflects a kind of extravagant and wasteful thinking. The BBC reported that more and more Chinese people realize that what needs to be done is to strengthen environmental protection. The British "Times" analysis said that the problem is not to ban plastic bags, but to find a way to persuade people to care about the environment around them.

From an economic point of view, foreign power also believes that this policy may be opposed by businesses. British Reuters reported that for banning plastic bags, merchants will complain that doing so may cause the loss of customers. From the government's point of view, many foreign media also doubt whether China's local governments can faithfully implement this decision of the central government.

Agence France-Presse analyzed that whether this policy can be effectively implemented nationwide is still unknown, because China's local governments have always turned a deaf ear to the central government's instructions on issues such as curbing environmental pollution. South Korea's Yonhap News Agency also believes that "it is still doubtful whether this measure issued by China's State Council can be thoroughly implemented. "The British" Times "reported that some environmentalists have expressed doubts about whether China's top-down command measures can solve the problem.