China to reward air clean-up efforts

Chinese officials announced on Thursday plans to reward a total of US$1.65 billion (RMB10 billion) this year to cities and regions that make “significant progress” in air pollution control, The New York Times reported, citing state-run news agency Xinhua. The announcement came from the State Council after it held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss several issues, one of which was the country’s immense air pollution problem. “Control of PM2.5 and PM10 should be a key task,” the State Council said in a statement, referring to two kinds of particulate matter that are deemed harmful to human health.