Chinese vice premier stresses efforts to fight for cleaner air

Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng on Wednesday stressed efforts to improve air quality and win the battle for blue skies.

Han, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks when attending a conference on air pollution prevention and control.

At the conference, he reviewed the action plan for air pollution control in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding regions for the upcoming autumn and winter, and arranged air pollution control works for the area and the Fenhe-Weihe plain in north China.

Han asked local authorities to regard air quality improvement as a rigid requirement and be steadfast in making the skies blue again.

Han urged efforts to speed up industrial structure transformation to deal with the root cause of air pollution, as well as to ensure the quality of pollution control devices.

Work should be done to steadily encourage the use of clean energy for winter-heating in north China to ensure that local people will be kept warm and safe in winter, he said.

The vice premier also ordered authorities to coordinate regulation of gas stations, roads, and automobiles, and at the same time enhance control over dust pollution.

While urging strict environmental law enforcement and supervision, he said the rights of enterprises that meet emission requirements should be protected, and that the battle against pollution should deliver real benefits to the public.