Premier Wen Jiabao's latest commitment to protect the environment, made during the annual session of the National People's Congress that ended last week, has met with little fanfare.
Although it is rare for mainland leaders to vow not to sacrifice the environment and public health on the altar of economic prosperity, few of the mainland media bothered to highlight such lofty words and they did not even cause a stir among his usual supporters in the mainland's vibrant blogosphere.
Obviously, few people take such words seriously given the grim reality of the country's pollution woes and the fact that Wen is about to retire in less than a year.
Critics have accused Wen of paying mere lip service to the problem, with data indicating worsening environmental degradation despite his pledges and the premier failing to say how he can deliver on them in his last year in office.
They say it is just another example of political grandstanding by Wen, aimed at putting a positive spin on his rather gloomy environmental legacy before his 10 years in office end next March.
Indeed, such a belated empty pledge seems too little and too late to check the rapid environmental degradation, that has been a key by-product of the country's runaway economic rise, and to undo all the damage that has been done on his watch - including the palpable human toll.
Despite his populist image and frequent emotional appeals about the need to rebuild social justice and stamp out corruption and other social ills, Wen appears to suffer from the same weakness that plagues most mainland politicians - a lack of courage to face the truth and follow through on his own promises. For the first time in the six years since his administration rolled out mandatory targets on cutting energy waste and curbing pollution emissions in 2006, Wen did not report results to NPC deputies in his annual work report this month.