Blessed by year after year of high economic growth rates, it has also been cursed by the environmental and social side effects of this rapid development. The evidence is obvious everywhere, from the grey skies of Beijing to the polluted waterways of southern China.

But if China looks a bit further south, to its neighbours in Southeast Asia, it will see it is neither first nor alone in facing these challenges. As the saying goes, we've been there and done that.

For many years, it was the countries of Southeast Asia which were experiencing the most rapid development. From 1987 to 1996, Thailand averaged 8 per cent annual growth, and Viet Nam is currently achieving similar feats. Malaysia and Singapore also preceded China in achieving economic success. And all these countries have also had to deal with the negative impacts.

They have fared differently in measuring up to the challenge. Malaysia and Singapore have done well in managing urban growth, while Viet Nam and Thailand have understood the need to curb energy demand, not just to increase supply.

The freeing up of civil society has also helped the region come up with home-grown solutions, such as conservation Buddhism, to universal problems.

China has the opportunity to learn from these experiences, to pick which policies might work in its own, admittedly unique, context. Of course, it can also do this by studying the developed world. But there are a few reasons why China should pay special attention to Southeast Asia.

First, the region largely shares China's goal of achieving prosperity as quickly as possible, and so has faced similar environmental challenges. Second, Southeast Asia is so close that China is having a huge environmental impact on the region, and the reverse can also be true. Finally, the region makes for a fascinating laboratory.

That is in part because Southeast Asia is so diverse historically, politically and spiritually. Most of the world's major religions are well represented here. And the region has a number of different political systems.

That has led to a number of different approaches to meeting the environmental challenge. Singapore has developed mass transit, imposed congestion taxes on traffic and practiced good planning to avoid the gridlocked sprawl found in cities like Bangkok and Manila. Malaysia has benefited from a federal, decentralized system that spreads development to numerous urban centres, including Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Penang.

Like China, Thailand and Viet Nam have some petroleum resources but recognize that they are going to have to rely on foreign sources of energy to fuel their growth. Both countries have realized they need to minimize energy subsidies which are bad for the economy and the environment because they stoke demand and implement demand-side management programmes as a kind of cheap, homegrown fuel "source."

Deforestation seems implacable in just about every country in the region, but some have managed to make forestry management and their forestry services more professional than others. Just as importantly, loosening up the reins on civil society has garnered governments in Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia and Indonesia important allies in the fight for sustainable management.

It's not just NGOs which have proven crucial here. The press has also played an important role as an environmental watchdog. Civic-minded corporations have supported rules and projects that are good for the green bottom line. Courts in Southeast Asia, meanwhile, have been relatively slow to recognize environmental claims, but they are changing. Thailand is now experimenting with an environmental court system whose officers and judges will be trained in the complex issues that inevitably surround such cases.

It is also fascinating to see how ancient spiritual beliefs are being harnessed to benefit the environment. China has its own traditions that can help, such as the Taoist protection of sacred mountains.

China and Southeast Asia actually have an even stronger interest in learning from and monitoring each other because their environmental problems naturally do not stop at their borders. China, for instance, buys a lot of food from the region, and needs to reduce the risk that it becomes contaminated.

The good news is that China and much of Southeast Asia now have the means to build up their environmental infrastructure. That doesn't just refer to waste water treatment plants, but also the system of policies, laws, courts, associations, NGOs and watchdogs needed to keep a society clean and green. This requires not just money, but political will.

The author is the executive director of the Earth Journalism Network and author of A Land on Fire: The Environmental Consequences of the Southeast Asian Boom.

(China Daily 06/14/2006 page4)