China Focus: Clearing China's air

As smog continued over parts of China on Friday, lawmakers at the ongoing annual legislative sessions fiercely discussed ways to improve air quality.

Control of pollution will be a priority for the government of northern China's Hebei Province, home to seven of the country's 10 most polluted cities, while the Beijing mayor declared "all-out effort" on the problem.

Official statistics over a period of 52 years show the number of smoggy days at a record high in 2013. More than 100 big- and medium-sized cities in 25 provincial-level regions were affected by smog.

The pollution has been blamed for a decline of tourists visiting smoggy regions that were once known for their tourist attractions.

Taking the example of Beijing, the capital saw a decline of inbound tourists last year for the first time since 2008. Tourists arriving fell 14.3 percent in the first half of 2013 compared with the same period in 2012.

WAR AGAINST CHOKING AIR

The increased frequency and duration of smog is the target of much discontent on Chinese social media, where millions of Chinese fear their health is being jeopardized by the side effects of decades of unchecked economic expansion.

The ruling Communist Party of China and the central government are taking a multi-pronged approach to the problem.

A five-year action plan unveiled by the central government in Sept. 2013, cuts coal use, shuts down polluters, promotes cleaner production and cuts the density of inhalable particulate matter. Putting the ambitious ideas in practice will cost an estimated 1.75 trillion yuan (around 290 billion U.S. dollars).

The CPC has also changed its system for evaluating the performance of government and party officials, once focused almost exclusively on GDP. In a key reform blueprint released by the new generation of CPC leadership in November 2013, protection of the environment and ecosystem were given much more weight in assessing officials' achievements.

Ordinary people in China have come up with their own ideas to deal with the smog that regularly cripples traffic and causes many other inconveniences.

Pilots were asked to use a system to aid landing when smog reduces visibility. In December 2012, a primary school in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province, invented a set of gymnastics said to help students to inhale less polluted air.