Eco-muscles flexing in China

There’s good eco-news from China.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the nation’s environmental protection ministry has halted construction of a high-speed railway because builders didn’t get the right permits. From the report:

China's Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a statement on its website Wednesday that project managers from eastern China's planned Tianjin-Qinhuangdao high-speed railway failed to submit to required environmental inspections after they made location changes. 

A woman who answered the phone at the Tianjin-Qinhuangdao Passenger Dedicated Line Co., which is managing the project, said the company declined to comment. The environment ministry didn't respond to a written request for comment.

It was the second time in two months the environment ministry has ordered the suspension of a high-speed rail project. The ministry ordered a completed line to cease operation in April because the project was never submitted for environmental evaluation. That line runs between the coastal city of Qingdao and Jinan, the provincial capital of eastern China's Shandong province.

As noted elsewhere in Catholic Ecology, China has serious ecological issues. Its frenzied attempt to build its industrial prowess is hurting the health of its people and damaging its environment. That the Ministry of Environmental Protection is able to take such actions shows that the Chinese government is getting its priorities right—at least when it comes to protecting and preserving its land, water, air and biological diversity.

Of course, in other areas, Catholic ecologists shudder at the damage the Chinese government brings to its people, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ who seek only to worship the Triune God—who breathed creation into existence and saves it with an infinite love, mercy and promise of eternal life. For more on that, see the video from Rome Reports below.

Still, that we’re seeing progress in Chinese efforts to bow to ecological laws is a sign that we may see progress in matters of faith.

As always, may God bless the Chinese people, and may He protect its environment and the many loyal Catholics who wait patiently and in hope for better days ahead.