What do record car sales in China mean?

China's vehicle sales reached a record in March, helped by government policy measures to bolster demand in both urban and rural areas.

According to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, China total vehicle sales rose 5.01 percent year on year in March to 1.11 million units. The number make China exceed the United States in terms of car sales for the third strait month in a row.

But what do the record car sales in China mean?

According to Cong Cao, a senior research associate at the State University of New York, though with the record sales result, most of the cars sold in China are made by foreign Chinese joint venture automakers. As the critical designs and technology are generally owned by the foreign part of the venture, more cars sold in China would mean that the foreign parent companies are able to get more profit.

Moreover, record car sales growth implicated that the government may not be able to build enough highways and roads to keep pace with car sales, which will cause more serious traffic jams in downtown areas and highways.

Eventually, more cars in China increase gasoline consumption in China and deteriorate greenhouse gases emissions worldwide. Actually there were voices on imposing stricter car greenhouse gas emissions standard on China to curb its growing greenhouse gases emissions, but China resolutely defended itself and claimed that it would be unfair to punish developing countries on doing eactly what developed countries were allowed to do in the past.

In facts China has made great efforts to develop and produce hybrid and electric vehicles and other new energy vehicles. These tasks seem to be more urgent and relevant as China surpasses the United States in car sales.