ABSTRACT
In the decade between 1978 and 1988, the Chinese economy grew at an astonishing rate, with an increase in Gross national product (GNP) of around 10 per cent per annum the highest in the world. Progress in technological advances can alter the extent and form of those constraints, but cannot do away with them altogether. China is under pressure from the influence of consumerism in the developed world. The pressure arises from the gulf separating China and the developed countries socially and economically. If China follows the Japanese model, then in 2060, Chinese per capita energy consumption will be 4 tons, making a total energy consumption of 5.2 billion tons, equivalent to 80 per cent of total world energy consumption in 1970. It is unthinkable that China should follow the American model in achieving a high level of modernization. Currently China, squeezed as it is between the dual pressures of limited natural resources and consumer demand, faces a fundamental choice.
