Over the last years, air pollution has become a major concern for China with wide-reaching negative effects on health, environment and also the economy. In January 2013, Beijing gained sad international notoriety, when air pollution spiked at unprecedented levels and conventional measures were found to be “beyond index’’. This recent negative attention on its extremely bad urban air quality does not help China, which has been criticized since long by the international community for its chilly commitments to environmental protection.
