Consolidating China's Industries, One Polluter at a Time

Winter is coming, and for much of China's eastern coast, that means the start of another smog season. But Beijing is trying to fight the haze, however slowly. China's environmental movement has gained traction over the last couple years, after initially meeting with doubt that the central government could force the country's many inefficient mining and manufacturing facilities to curtail their emissions. And though Beijing still has a long way to go to put its policies into practice, President Xi Jinping made clear at the recent Communist Party Congress that cleaning up the environment is a priority for his administration. Inspections and fines ramped up over the first nine months of this year, and they will continue apace into the next as Xi works to strengthen his control over China's industries, one polluter at a time....