Submitted By: Peter Thelen

Early this winter, a scientific expedition on the Yangtze River ended with the discovery that China’s ancient White Dolphin is essentially extinct. Here is a Humane Society story and a CBS News story regarding the unfortunate discovery. The White Dolphin, or baiji, is the first marine mammal species in 50 years to be called extinct. More importantly for China, however, is that this recent discovery can be directly linked to the increased industrial activity in the country. Though baiji were living in a polluted river and were often killed by local fisheries, a main reason for their extinction was the constantly increasing ship traffic in the area. Baiji were effectively blind and used sonar to find their food, but increased ship noise has made this nearly impossible.

Now, another endangered species, the Finless Porpoise, faces the same fate in the Yangtze River. Is this an issue China should be concerned about? There have been earlier posts about China’s environmental problems and how it may be “unfair” to impose strict environmental standards on a country that is in the height of its own industrial revolution. But this is not emission or toxin levels at issue here; this is the fate of entire species. Though the significance of the loss of a species is a point of contention, it is reasonable to assume that if China does not establish a more rigorous system to keep the environmental impact of its industry in check, the local ecosystems will begin to change drastically. Now, I would never call myself an environmentalist, but I am a Californian and something about this issue does not sit right with me.

Here are some questions to think about that I have pondered myself:

Protecting an endangered species is not easy, but is it excusable for China to throw up its arms in futility because of its extremely rapid growth?

Can we expect China to be concerned with endangered species when it has other, more pressing issues such as providing clean drinking water and improving air quality levels?

Many people in the U.S. understand the issue of protecting endangered species and why it is important to humans. Is the issue of protecting endangered species important to the average Chinese person? Should it be?

Submitted By: Andrew Gardner

While studying financial derivatives for the upcoming finance final, I remembered an article that I read a few weeks ago in the Wall Street Journal. The article, “China Tries Long-Term Response to Stock Volatility” by James Arredy, briefly discusses the boom and bust cycles of the Chinese Stock market and suggests strategies that could be used to level the highs and lows. One of the suggestions given is the implementation of a financial futures market. As we have learned in class, a futures market gives investors the right to both buy and sell stocks. This allows investors to bet against the movement of the market, decreasing the overall volatility of stock prices.

Although China recently finished constructing the brand new China Financial Futures Exchange, the country bans the trading of all financial derivatives (sounds pretty hypocritical to me, why would you build something designed to promote something illegal?). This mandate has been in affect since 1995 when a scandal in the government-bonds-future market led to the loss of over $10 billion in minutes. With losses this substantial, China has been hesitant to reconsider a financial futures market. This has changed recently with the dramatic drop in Chinese stock prices.

China has already responded to the request for a futures market by offering limited trading of “financial futures and options related to securities, interest rates, foreign-exchange rates, as well as index-related products.” According to the Wall Street Journal article “China Widens Futures Rules’ Scope,” the rules are still strict as each firm must obtain a government issued license.

While still a small step, the recent change in policy appears to be the first movement toward widely traded index-fund futures that could help stabilize the Chinese stock market.