Correct anti-pollution move

Severe laws are needed to govern a country when it is in disorder, as a Chinese saying goes.

That is exactly the attitude of China's decision-makers toward the environment that has increasingly caused public concern and fueled public grievances.

The system for environmental monitoring and inspection enforcement set out in the communiqu�� passed by the Fifth Plenum of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee is expected to change the dilemma the country's environmental protection efforts have encountered until now. Till date, environmental protection has in most cases been ignored in favor of economic development by GDP-obsessed local economic planners and environmental assessments and enforcement remain under the jurisdiction of local governments.