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G. Qu
local air quality: “You cannot tell the sun from the moon, the day is almost as dark
as the night, and the nostrils are as black as chimney walls.” The pollution is hard
for people to imagine nowadays.
While the current quality of the environment leaves a lot to be desired, tremendous changes have been made in the environmental quality across China. In today’s
Taiyuan, even if you wear a shirt for three to five days, the collar is not as dirty as it
was when you wore it for an hour. This accomplishment is truly gratifying to an old
environmentalist like me.
According to the 19th National Congress of the CPC, we will build a moderately
prosperous society in all respects by 2020. In this decisive period, it is necessary to
fight the battle against air, water and soil pollution. Fighting the battle against pollution lays a solid foundation for meeting the goal of building a moderately prosperous
society in all respects, achieving socialist modernization by 2035, fundamentally
improving the ecological environment and developing a beautiful China. With the
fundamental improvement of the environment, it is tempting and feasible to build
China into a prosperous, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful modern
socialist power by 2050.
Pollution prevention and control, an arduous task, must be refined to fight seven
milestone battles, including keeping our skies blue, pollution control of diesel trucks,
treatment of dark and fetid bodies of water in urban areas, comprehensive improvement of the Bohai region, protection and restoration of Yangtze River ecosystems,
safeguarding of water sources, and handling of agricultural and rural pollution. The
battles are aimed at the chronic intractable problems that we have been addressing for
years. The arrangements that are now in place are much better and more scientifically
sound than before. Keeping our skies blue, for example, aims to take Beijing-TianjinHebei and surrounding areas, the Yangtze River Delta region and the Fenwei Plain
as key areas to further reduce PM 2.5 concentrations during the autumn, winter
and heating periods by strengthening joint pollution prevention and control, and
intensifying efforts to adjust and optimize industrial structure, energy mix, transport
structure and composition of land use. As a newly-added key region, the Fenwei
Plain, a general term for the Fen River Plain and Wei River Plain and their tablelands
and terraces in the Yellow River Basin, includes some areas of Shanxi, Shaanxi and
Henan provinces. It is a new battleground for environmental protection, deepening
our understanding of cross-regional environmental issues. The Party committees
and governments of the three provinces have worked together with the Ministry
of Ecology and Environment to take comprehensive measures for joint pollution
prevention and control to deal with the challenging problem. What they are doing
embodies China’s positive and determined approach to environmental protection,
signaling that we have conditions and ability to tackle chronic problems. That is our
strength in winning the battle against pollution.
There is only one year left until 2020. Facing a tight schedule, heavy burdens,
and tremendous pressure, we can only redouble our efforts to win the seven battles
in just one year.
G. Qu
local air quality: “You cannot tell the sun from the moon, the day is almost as dark
as the night, and the nostrils are as black as chimney walls.” The pollution is hard
for people to imagine nowadays.
While the current quality of the environment leaves a lot to be desired, tremendous changes have been made in the environmental quality across China. In today’s
Taiyuan, even if you wear a shirt for three to five days, the collar is not as dirty as it
was when you wore it for an hour. This accomplishment is truly gratifying to an old
environmentalist like me.
According to the 19th National Congress of the CPC, we will build a moderately
prosperous society in all respects by 2020. In this decisive period, it is necessary to
fight the battle against air, water and soil pollution. Fighting the battle against pollution lays a solid foundation for meeting the goal of building a moderately prosperous
society in all respects, achieving socialist modernization by 2035, fundamentally
improving the ecological environment and developing a beautiful China. With the
fundamental improvement of the environment, it is tempting and feasible to build
China into a prosperous, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful modern
socialist power by 2050.
Pollution prevention and control, an arduous task, must be refined to fight seven
milestone battles, including keeping our skies blue, pollution control of diesel trucks,
treatment of dark and fetid bodies of water in urban areas, comprehensive improvement of the Bohai region, protection and restoration of Yangtze River ecosystems,
safeguarding of water sources, and handling of agricultural and rural pollution. The
battles are aimed at the chronic intractable problems that we have been addressing for
years. The arrangements that are now in place are much better and more scientifically
sound than before. Keeping our skies blue, for example, aims to take Beijing-TianjinHebei and surrounding areas, the Yangtze River Delta region and the Fenwei Plain
as key areas to further reduce PM 2.5 concentrations during the autumn, winter
and heating periods by strengthening joint pollution prevention and control, and
intensifying efforts to adjust and optimize industrial structure, energy mix, transport
structure and composition of land use. As a newly-added key region, the Fenwei
Plain, a general term for the Fen River Plain and Wei River Plain and their tablelands
and terraces in the Yellow River Basin, includes some areas of Shanxi, Shaanxi and
Henan provinces. It is a new battleground for environmental protection, deepening
our understanding of cross-regional environmental issues. The Party committees
and governments of the three provinces have worked together with the Ministry
of Ecology and Environment to take comprehensive measures for joint pollution
prevention and control to deal with the challenging problem. What they are doing
embodies China’s positive and determined approach to environmental protection,
signaling that we have conditions and ability to tackle chronic problems. That is our
strength in winning the battle against pollution.
There is only one year left until 2020. Facing a tight schedule, heavy burdens,
and tremendous pressure, we can only redouble our efforts to win the seven battles
in just one year.