China has had astonishing success improving its air quality since declaring a “war on pollution” in 2013. From 2014 to 2022, average levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) dropped faster than in any other country, according to the University of Chicago’s Air Quality Life Index. Last year, nearly three-quarters of the country’s cities had average PM2.5 levels below the national standard limit. Taken together, the level of PM2.5 in China’s cities was 36% lower than it had been in 2015. This success followed a range of measures including retrofitting coal power plants.

China’s efforts at managing air pollution have hitherto focused on the eastern parts of the country. The national air pollution action plan that the State Council issued in 2013 set PM2.5 targets for cities clustered in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, and in the deltas of the Yangtze and Pearl rivers. In 2018 came another action plan, this time focussed on improving air quality in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze Delta and the Fenwei Plain on the middle reaches of the Yellow River. (The Pearl River Delta had been dropped due to its long-term good compliance with the national standard.) These three regions all have an energy mix dominated by coal, and significant air pollution issues connected with heavy industry.

But while in the first quarter of 2025, eastern Chi

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