Comment by roenxi

The West have been executing a long-range plan for 30 years on this one, the lack of power plants is intentional. There have been any number of roadblocks and people working hard to prevent the West doing specifically what the Chinese have done with the goal of maintaining the high air quality that Western countries tend to enjoy.

If anything the West's culture has been doing more long term planning. It is quite difficult to force an economy not to produce something.