The municipal government of Guangzhou, a sprawling metropolis that is one of China’s biggest auto manufacturing centers, introduced license plate auctions and lotteries last week that will roughly halve the number of new cars on the streets.
The crackdown by China’s third-largest city is the most restrictive in a series of moves by big Chinese cities that are putting quality-of-life issues ahead of short-term economic growth, something the central government has struggled to do on a national scale.
The measures have the potential to help clean up China’s notoriously dirty air and water, reduce long-term health care costs and improve the long-term quality of Chinese growth. But they are also imposing short-term costs, economists say, at a time when policy makers in Beijing and around the world are already concerned about a sharp economic slowdown in China. Even though the Chinese government would be losing money and slowing down the economic growth for a short time the overall quality of living and the quality of the environment would increase in China. This is a huge step for China because they have one of the worst air quality and living environments because of all the factories and industry that is over in China.
I think it was a good idea to cut back on the number of cars on the streets. This was really a smart move by China. Although this will make alot of people upset, it will elliminate alot of the emmisions that the city produces. The air and water will become much cleaner and the air will contain less amounts of chemicals. I like how all of the quality will be increased and I think this should be set as an example for other countries in the world. This really is a giant step and I hope that they continue more in the future.
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