In China’s toxic air, winds of change

LINFEN, China – Here in one of the world’s most polluted cities, where coal dust blackens apples still on the branch, something new is in the air.

It’s not the brown smoke chugging out of coke plants and iron smelters day and night. The stranger is talk of an ultimatum.

Three years after China first cited Linfen for the nation’s worst air quality, local officials have in recent weeks begun shuttering factories that for years had fouled the environment with impunity. And more than 100 other plants in the city face a deadline: adopt environmental protection equipment by the end of March or be shut down.
Vows to crack down on polluters are nothing new in China and have brought little improvement. But what makes this case intriguing is that local officials in one of the country’s worst-affected cities are closing factories, saying they have been warned that their political careers will hinge on successfully curbing pollution.

“We are under strong pressure” from the central government, said Yang Zhaofeng, deputy director of the Linfen environmental protection bureau.

Stricter enforcement in Linfen suggests that pronouncements in the capital could be filtering into the provinces. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao candidly acknowledged last week that the nation had failed to meet its own goal of cutting emissions 2 percent last year. He declared that economic growth must be restrained to curb further environmental damage.

But slowing China’s economic locomotive is a risky move. The Communist Party retains public support in part by boosting living standards and limiting unemployment. But that unbridled growth has helped give China the largest pollution problem the world has ever seen. Chinese leaders confront a puzzle: how to clean up that environment without hobbling the economy and putting millions of workers on the street?

SanLuisObispo