A fighting chance

Premier Wen Jiabao's latest warning over the increasing difficulties of fulfilling the country's energy-saving goals highlighted a major cost of the country's stimulus package, rolled out in late 2008 to battle the worst global recession in decades.

The gap between China's energy-efficiency reality and its aim to cut energy intensity by 20 percent between 2006 and 2010 is certainly disappointing.

But the country still has a fighting chance to meet that goal, if all related departments and local governments can immediately launch a full-scale attack on overcapacity in energy-guzzling industries.