Opinion | As China’s economic growth engine slows, is its war on pollution losing steam?

This winter, 39 cities across northern China, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei megalopolis and the Fenwei Plain, experienced alarming surges in air pollution.

The uptick in smog means these heavily polluted areas are now unlikely to meet their annual air quality targets. Beijing’s gambit to relax anti-pollution curbs in the face of economic pressures, particularly trade tensions with the US, has not helped. 

In February, average levels of PM2.5 – hazardous ultra-fine airborne particles, known to cause cancer and respiratory disease – in the region increased by 40 per cent to a startling 108 micrograms per cubic metre, almost three times the national standard (35 micrograms per cubic metre) and over 10 times above the World Health Organisation’s standard of 10 micrograms per cubic metre.

Some northern cities were hit particularly hard: PM2.5 concentrations in Linfen in Shaanxi province and Anyang in Henan province soared to 174 and 163 micrograms respectively. Given that research has shown that each increase of 100 micrograms per cubic metre raises morbidity by 12 per cent, this uptick in pollution across northern China should keep the country’s planners up at night.