Chinese premier pledges to get tougher on polluters

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the country’s government is listening to citizens who want it to do more to fight pollution.

Li acknowledged in a Sunday press conference that Chinese leaders have not lived up to people’s expectations that they better protect the environment and enforce laws against polluters, The New York Times reported.

{mosads}Li’s comments came days after the government banned “Under the Dome,” a documentary about China’s pollution problems that had become immensely popular among residents.

“This is a concern that is uppermost on all people’s minds,” Li said in response to a question about air pollution, according to the Times.

“The Chinese government is determined to tackle smog and environmental pollution as a whole,” he said.

“But the progress we have made still falls far short of the expectation of the people. Last year, I said the Chinese government would declare war against environmental pollution. We’re determined to carry forward our efforts until we achieve our goal.”

Li did not mention “Under the Dome,” but he did speak about many of the problems it exposed, like the government’s unwillingness to take action against polluting companies and the state’s energy companies.

“All acts of illegal production and emissions will be brought to justice and held accountable,” he said. “We need to make businesses that illicitly emit and dump pay a price too heavy to bear. We must ensure that the enforcement of the environmental protection law is not a stick of cotton candy but a powerful mace.”