"Air Pollution in China Unbearable": Lawmakers 　　Air pollution in China, especially in large and medium-sized cities, is now unbearable, according to Chinese lawmakers, who met in Beijing August 27 to discuss draft amendments to the Law on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution. 　　They almost unanimously support the overhaul of the 1987 law which was revised only three years ago and proposed replacing the country's energy consumption pattern dominated by coal burning with clean resources, such as electricity and gas. 　　However, there were still many attending the ongoing legislative session, who worry whether the huge investment scheme needed to implement the changes as required by the draft amendments is feasible or affordable. 　　The draft amendments under review by the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee add 22 articles to the existing 50-article law and only 23 of the existing articles are left unaltered. 　　According to a source with the NPC, the draft amendments were not originally planned for discussion in this session's agenda because of the changes made in 1996. 　　"But due to the accelerated deterioration of air quality in recent years, the NPC Standing Committee leadership attaches great importance to the issue and decided to move these new amendments forward in the legislation procedure," the source said. 　　Jiang Chunyun, vice-chairman of the NPC Standing Committee said that they (the amendments) are urgently needed for the protection of people's health and are closely linked to the sustainable development of the national economy. 　　Jiang and three other committee members, Chang Shana, Li Meng and Zhu Yuli, said the draft still does not fully address the real cause of air pollution in China, i.e. coal burning. If coal is still burned at today's rate, no improvement will occur, they said. 　　However, legislator Liu Hongyuan was concerned that the proposed investment in air pollution control for targeted cities is as high as 350 billion yuan (42.3 billion US dollars) for the next 10 years, taking up nearly five percent of the local revenue in related areas. 　　"The NPC should also adopt a resolution to make the investment compulsory and forcible," he said. 　　Another member Du Yijin said that the State Council should conduct research in advance on how much control is needed and how much will be affordable. 　　Lawmakers Zhu Yuli, Tong Fu and many others suggested that the government should levy fines heavy enough to make it financially unfeasible for polluters to continue fouling the air. 　　But Pu Chaozhu and Yu Xinglong argued that many state-owned or collectively-owned enterprises are already in financial difficulties and short of funds to tackle pollution control, saying that if fines are too heavy, there would be even grimmer situation for them. 　　The State Environmental Protection Administration said that 70 percent of China's key cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, provincial capitals and coastal or tourist cities failed to meet national air pollution control standards in 1998. 　　The World Health Organization reported that of the 10 most contaminated cities of the world in terms of air quality last year, seven were in China. (Xinhua) HomeNews 1999-08-28 Page2 Full Story in Chinese