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Catherine Wong

A new bout of air pollution is due to hit Beijing and other parts of north China today.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection on Saturday issued an air quality forecast that more than 18 cities in northern China will suffer heavy pollution until at least Wednesday.
Air pollution here to stay unless the economy is rebalanced
Besides the capital, other cities to be affected include nearby Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang, Langfang and Baoding in neighbouring Hebei province. Shanxi, Shandong and Henan provinces will also be affected.
All the regions will be hit the hardest today when the pollution is most serious.
The latest pollution is caused by “unfavourable meteorological conditions for the dispersion of air pollution”, the ministry said.

Air pollution is usually the most serious during winter in China. Pollution levels can usually build up due to a lack of wind to disperse the pollution.
The pollution is expected to ease by Wednesday when a cold front will help disperse the pollutants, the ministry added.
However, the relief with be short-lived with yet more smog returning on Friday until the end of the week on March 5, when the annual session of the National People’s Congress opens.
To combat air pollution, authorities have ordered factories to cut output and have sent inspectors to heavy manufacturing centres to monitor environmental measures taken by factories.
China firing blanks in ‘war on pollution’ as smog worsens
Such efforts have proven to be challenging. Last week, the ministry of environmental protection criticised several cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and neighbouring areas, including Cangzhou and Baoding, for failing to comply with government regulations in stop production on heavily polluted days.
Chen Jining, the minister of environmental protection, held a meeting on Thursday to discuss measures to be taken in the coming days. He pledged to issue timely pollution alerts and to tighten inspections to find factories that failed to comply with environmental regulations.
China has a four-tier colour-coded air pollution warning system, starting with blue, the least serious, and rising through yellow, orange and red.


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China pollution

Heavy air pollution to hit northern cities until start of National People’s Congress

Cyclists venture out into the smog in Beijing earlier this month. Photo: Reuters

In this Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017 photo, a Chinese woman wearing a mask for protection against air pollution performs an exercise at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Beijing has made robust efforts to retire aged vehicles and move heavily polluting industries to outlying provinces, yet the problem persists. The sheer size of the city’s population, now at almost 22 million, and geographic conditions that surround it on three sides with smog-trapping mountains seem to require that further measures are needed. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

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Pollution will ease by Wednesday, forecasters say, but return with a vengeance on Friday for the following week


Heavy air pollution to hit northern cities until start of National People’s Congress

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Pollution will ease by Wednesday, forecasters say, but return with a vengeance on Friday for the following week

Pollution will ease by Wednesday, forecasters say, but return with a vengeance on Friday for the following week