Achieving ecological civilization is atop the agenda of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which, under the leadership of General Secretary Xi Jinping, has strived to enhance environmental qualities, Xinhua News Agency said on Tuesday.
China's biggest steel-producing region, Hebei, is paying "a huge price" for the country's war on pollution, the province's top Communist Party official said.
A lot more needs to be done to provide watchdogs with teeth and make it impossible for the watchdogs to become the accomplices of polluters.
Smog is a hot topic at the Two Sessions with Premier Li Keqiang vowing to enforce environmental regulations in the Government Work Report.
In more than 300 prefecture-level cities nationwide, the air quality in 80 percent of them failed to meet the required standard.
China still has an uphill battle to fight before ultimately eliminating the toxic legacy of rapid industrialization.
The treatment of air pollution by officials should be part of their performance evaluation, and third parties should be enabled to play bigger roles in pollution control, a deputy has said.
For China's academic-turned environment chief, the first thing to consider after waking up every morning is no longer his students, but the color of the sky.