China tells regions not to blame others after smog surge in Yangtze River area

China’s regional governments need to take more responsibility for local pollution and stop blaming others, a senior environmental official said on Tuesday, following increases in smog in the Yangtze and Pearl river delta regions in January.

While nationwide air pollution fell thanks to a tough winter crackdown in smog-prone northern regions, concentrations of small, breathable particles known as PM2.5 surged 20 per cent in the Yangtze delta in eastern China, which includes Shanghai as well as the highly industrialised province of Jiangsu.

A 3.9 per cent increase in PM2.5 in the Pearl River Delta near Hong Kong also raised fears that polluting heavy industrial output had moved to eastern and southern regions as a result of a crackdown in the north, which forced thousands of factories to curb production.

Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday, Liu Bingjiang, head of the air quality department at China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, said changes in industrial output could have been responsible for the spike, noting that steel output data for 2017 indicated a shifting “production structure and layout” for industry.

“We will analyse more closely to see to what extent the rising PM2.5 is due to increasing industrial emissions,” he added. “I am sure the Yangtze delta governments understand very well what their tasks are.”