China’s campaign for cleaner air has come at a high cost for a city in an eastern province.
On Feb. 25, inspectors from China’s environmental protection ministry visited Zhang Shuping, the acting mayor of Linyi City, Shandong Province, for a chat about his city’s environmental problems, according to state-funded news site Peng Pai.
The inspectors were undoubtedly in Linyi to enforce China’s “war against pollution”—last April, China’s faux legislature passed stringent environmental law amendments, which came into effect this January.
The methods employed have been classically Leninist and campaign-like, the style often adopted by the Chinese Communist Party: top-down orders to be followed to the letter, regardless of the inefficiencies or other consequences created.
