New environment chief vows to throttle emissions

Being in the minister's job for exactly just one week, the new head of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Chen Jining, showed that his overseas training and global perspectives will play a role in the country's fight against pollution at his first appearance during a news conference at the National People's Congress on March 8.

The title of the meeting - "Comprehensively Strengthening Environmental Protection" - says it all. In light of growing concerns over the environment, the ministry is not only charged with a new environmental mission to bring back the health of the nation's air, water and soil, but faces increasing challenges from the public now that the government is no longer the sole source of information that they have access to.

With an environmental engineering degree from Imperial College London and previously serving as the president of Tshinghua University, his alma mater, Chen has presented a candid view of the state of the environment and provided a persuasive vision that the government will take all the necessary steps to improve the environment to a satisfactory level. The highlights of his press conference are the various English acronyms and phrases that he cited to make his points.