Jumpstarting China's economy may come before environment goals
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
China's environment ministry has given an eyebrow-raising update on what it is doing to stabilise the economy.
At a regular press briefing last Thursday, spokesman Liu Youbin said the ministry was "optimising environmental supervision" by relieving pressure on companies with problems meeting environmental targets, and "reforming" environmental assessments to ensure important infrastructure projects get the green light. To Chinese environmental experts, the comments are an indirect way of saying that environmental goals are taking a backseat as the economy faces greater headwinds.
