Critics have long condemned China’s economic growth as coming at the expense of air and water quality, and therefore at the expense of peoples’ health.  Officials don’t respond or deny there is a problem.  So a businessman is offering officials $32,000 for swimming in a polluted river.

Jin Zengmin is disgusted with the state of the river running through Rui’an City.  It’s a place where villagers used to wash their vegetable when he was a kid.  Now, it’s chocked with garbage and filth and in his blog Jin is blaming a rubber overshoe factory for dumping its industrial waste into the water.  That falls under the government's regulatory responsibility.

The local Peoples’ official says people are polluting the river, not factories, therefore it’s not part of his responsibilities.. but he’ll look at the situation anyway.