Political advisors propose exploring new industries to fight smog

This year's session of China's top political advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, or CPPCC, is drawing to a close.

One of the hot topics for this year has been environmentalism, and particularly how to tackle the smog problem in some of China's major cities.

Experts believe the issue is intimately entwined with industrial restructuring.

CRI's reporter at this year's session Liu Kun has more.

CPPCC member Chi Fulin is currently the President of the China Institute for Reform and Development. For him, tackling the smog issue in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area means a change from reliance on heavy industry to exploring possibilities of growth.

"The most important thing is that we need to develop new industries. For example, we need a lot of people to work in the healthcare industry at the moment. So we need to explore new industries in economic transformation, to enable those who have lost their job to work in the service sector by giving them skills training opportunities."

The Chinese central government introduced the strategy of integrating the capital Beijing and its neighboring Tianjin and Hebei provinces in early 2014, for the purpose of diffusing the non-political functions of Beijing, and promoting coordinated development.

Among the several environmental problems plaguing all three places, smog is arguably the one that grabs most attention in the public's eyes.

Pollutants from power generation and industrial emissions are widely considered as the main culprits for air pollution in the region. Local governments are struggling to find a balance between closing down heavy industry factories for cleaner air and maintaining growth and employment.

Chi says cutting down heavy industry will create unemployment, but says sometimes it's better to just rip off the plaster and concentrate on the long-term benefits.

"So the Chinese economy is now at a critical juncture of transformation. At this point, short-term pain is inevitable. We should focus more on trying to find solutions for mid and long term growth and to inject new power into the economy. This should be the right direction."

Dr. Qi Ye is director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy and a leading expert on China's environmental policy. He says the old way of moving heavy industries out of Beijing and into Hebei is not the solution. Instead, he suggests Hebei should tap into new-types of agriculture as the market potential is huge for this densely populated area and food safety has always been a concern.

"In the past, in the last three decades, we have seen a major shift from agriculture to industry. That created a lot of pollution problems. I think moving back to agriculture — I am not talking about moving back to the traditional agriculture, rather, to agriculture with high technology, high quality and safe food. I think that is a very important direction to go."

In his 2017 government work report, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged new goals in the fight against air pollution.

"We will make our skies blue again. This year will see the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions both cut by 3 per cent and a significant drop of PM2.5 density in heavily polluted areas."

Both Chi Fulin and Qi Ye believe that the integration of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei means more opportunities for the fight against smog. Chi Fulin particularly pointed out that it has been written in the government plan in 2015 that the three places will implement unified entry-and-exit environmental standards for industrial corporations.

Statistics from the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau show that for 2016 the average PM2.5 index for 13 major cities in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei was 71 micrograms per cubic meter, down by 33% from three years ago.

For CRI, this is Liu Kun.