China had a policy of isolationism for decades. This caused them to fall behind many other countries in the world technologically, economically, etc. Now they've finally realized they can't live as if the rest of the world doesn't exist so they're playing catch-up. Except they're not doing it intelligently. Once again they fail. Instead of observing the pitfalls of industrialization and using current and new technology to avoid it, they are just repeating all the mistakes others have already made. With their drive for expansion and development, they are killing the land and ultimately killing themselves.

More than four-fifths of the wetlands along northern China's biggest river system have dried up because of over-development, the state media reported yesterday in the latest warning of the dire environmental consequences of the country's economic growth.

Fifty years ago, the Haihe River and its tributaries formed an ecologically rich area that included 1,465 square miles of wetlands. But in the years since, the expanding mega-cities of Beijing and Tianjin have sucked much of it dry. The Xinhua news agency reported that the wetlands have shrunk to 207 square miles.