L.A. all over again

WITH A SIZZLING economy growing 9% a year or more but facing limits on domestic energy, China has no choice but to seek more oil from foreign sources. Yet Americans were surprised when a Chinese company emerged as a serious contender to buy Unocal Corp. Then China was surprised by the ferocious political reaction among some U.S. conservatives, forcing China's CNOOC Ltd. to withdraw its bid last week.

The astonishment on both sides shows that China and the U.S. are hardly prepared to relate to each other on 21st century terms. But as the expanding global economy continues to burden the global environment, each nation has much to gain or lose by studying the other's energy failures.

China should look to the U.S. as it asks itself: If the price of growth is unbreathable air, undrinkable water, dysfunctional cities and congested roads, how long can a nation sustain a boom economy?

What China \o7did\f7 learn from the United States is that a prosperous auto industry spawns growth in related industries, including steel, glass, plastics, oil, finance and insurance. What it seems not to have learned is the high price that can come with such growth.

In Beijing, where the number of cars is growing by 20% annually, the average traffic speed has declined from 28 mph in 1994 to 7.5 mph in 2003 -- a pace easily matched on a bicycle. As in American cities, this rising level of car ownership has coincided with a sharp decline in transit ridership. Seventy percent of Beijing's population used public transit in the 1970s. Just 24% use it today.

Commuters on bicycles, once ubiquitous on Chinese city streets, have been banned from major thoroughfares in Shanghai and other cities to make room for cars. As more Chinese drive, demand has risen for their version of California-style suburban sprawl, with immaculate low-density housing tracts featuring large detached single-family homes located far from jobs. Like Californians, Chinese commuters travel farther and spend more time on the road, requiring more gasoline and churning out more pollution. Clearly, California's car culture and sprawl don't provide the best model of sustainable development.

China should look to Curitiba in southern Brazil or Tokyo, which combine high rates of car ownership with low daily car use by offering good public transit and adopting tough restrictions on driving. You can buy as many cars as you want (and boost the car industry and the economy), but you don't have to use a car for every trip.