Full transcript of policy briefing of the State Council on Feb 13, 2015

Xinhua News Agency:

I have a question for Mr Dou. You’ve mentioned that President Xi Jinping visited the quake-hit area of Ludian county in Yunnan province earlier this year. We know it was President Xi’s first out-of-Beijing visit this year. What measures will the Civil Affairs Ministry take to ensure a warm Spring Festival for people who lost homes in the quake?

Dou Yupei:

The winter and early spring will be the most difficult period for these people. The Party Central Committee and the State Council care a great deal about their plight, especially those living in high-altitude and cold areas. The Civil Affairs Ministry has adopted several measures in this regard.

First, we have organized a comprehensive examination of the difficulties faced by residents in quake-hit areas since September, 2014, and classified our assistance according to their needs.

Second, we have intensified capital insurance. As I have mentioned, 7.1 billion yuan has been earmarked as provisional living allowances for natural disaster victims to tackle the cold winter, including the purchasing of rice, noodles, clothes, cooking oil and some other essentials for the Spring Festival. This fund is solely for that purpose and not part of the reconstruction efforts. Meanwhile, the local governments are also stepping up investment. The provinces related with the quake-hit areas have invested 418 million yuan in disaster relief work. We have adopted a series of supervisory measures to manage the use of the capital and ensure that individual households receive the money before the Spring Festival.

Third, we have boosted material support from the central government. We have dispatched 10,000 cotton tents to the quake-hit area of Ludian county, 3,000 cotton tents and 10,000 cotton quilts to Jinggu, 5,000 cotton tents, 4, 000 cotton quilts and 4,000 cotton-padded clothes to Kangding. These are all from the central reserves. We also have relief reserves stored by local governments to meet the demands of quake-hit areas at any time.

Fourth, we have strengthened supervision and inspections. The Civil Affairs Ministry have recently sent four working teams to eight provinces that were seriously hit last year. I led a team to the quake-affected areas in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. We have examined the resettlement of quake-hit residents and the after-quake reconstruction work. We also visited the areas where the residents live and saw adequate supplies including quilts, clothes and food.

Dou Yupei:

To ensure safety and prevent fire, the quake-hit areas have set up special dining areas in the resettlement area where households can eat and cook for the festival. As the Spring Festival draws near, some public facilities and some new tents have been prepared for the residents to hold reunions with their family members who study and work outside.

The public in the disaster-hit area feel the care from the society, the Party and the government. Next, we will pay close attention to the living conditions of quake-affected people, especially those living in high-altitude and cold areas. We will respond to and solve the problems. We will also urge local governments to speed up reconstruction work after disasters and make sure that the disaster-hit people can move into new housing as soon as possible.

Thank you.

China National Radio:

I have questions for Qi Ji, vice-minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. First, the ministry launched a campaign to check hidden risks on construction sites around the country, after an accident occurred at Tsinghua High School. What problems have been found? What measures will you take to solve these problems? Have you made any progress in this regard?

My second question is on the policy of affordable housing. It is reported that the ministry will gradually halt affordable-housing projects. Is that true? If so, what is the reason for this? Thank you.

Qi Ji:

I am not in charge of the field of work safety at the Ministry of Housing and Rural Development, so my knowledge on this matter may not be that full or detailed.

As far as I know, our ministry had a video conference the same night after the accident occurred at the construction site in Beijing and issued an emergency notice to local branches.

To be specific, in this notice, authorities at the provincial level will take overall responsibility in the campaign, and those at city level will screen all housing construction sites. If a potential safety hazard is uncovered, orders will be issued for rectification within a specified time, and records will be kept of the rectification process.

The campaign demands a wide range of work because there are tens of thousands of, or even millions of, construction sites across the country, so we can only press forward with this task with a city as a unit. We have found some projects where there are safety hazards, and some have been halted, with orders for rectification measures to be taken.

Relevant departments of the ministry will make information public at the appropriate time.

As for the cancellation of the affordable housing policy, I am absolutely unaware of that.

China Central Television:

I have several questions for Zhai Qing, the vice-minister of environmental protection. The ministry has published a range of statistics regarding emissions in recent years, and based on the numbers we can conclude that good progress has been made. But some experts have said air quality has deteriorated in recent years, and the public has been complaining about the absence of a solid improvement in this regard. So we are interested in your thoughts on conflicting signs related to air quality and falling emissions.

Another question is on deteriorating quality of water. The public is looking for 10 provisions aimed at eliminating water pollution, similar to those adopted to fight air pollution. Can you tell us about the progress made in eliminating water pollution? Thank you.

Zhai Qing:

Thank you for those questions, which are good ones.

In the period of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), there has been progress every year on reduced emissions, and things have looked good.

The problem now is that while total emissions are falling, the quality of the environment is yet to significantly improve. There is a great deal of public discussion.

We need to look at this from two angles. First, an overall plan for reducing emissions has been set out that has played an effective role in recent years, especially for boosting infrastructure construction related to environmental protection.

I have some figures for you, first on sewage treatment capacity. At the beginning of the 11th Five-Year Plan, total daily sewage treatment capacity was 52 million tons. The figure is now 170 million tons. Desulfurization and denitration in the thermal power industry is unfolding, and desulfurization has expanded from several thermal power units to capacity of 800 million kilowatts, accounting for 95 percent of the installed units. Denitration in thermal power plants started during the 12th Five-Year Plan, and now, with policy support such as power prices, converted capacity totals 690 million kW, accounting for 82 percent of installed units. Infrastructure intended for environmental protection is gaining momentum in industries such as steel, cement, plate glasses. Otherwise, there would be further deterioration in the quality of both air and water. So the reduction of emissions, part of an official agenda, is integral to effectively controlling deteriorating environmental quality.

Zhai Qing:

However, the conflicting signs that the reporter talks of are indeed a problem. There are two reasons for this. First, the total amount of polluting emissions way exceeds the capacity of the environment. Major sources of pollution in either the water or the air account for more than 20 million tons (annually), and the (progress) achieved since the 11th Five-Year Plan is insufficient to lead to a big improvement in environmental quality. As estimated by experts, a remarkable change will not take place unless there is an overall fall of 30 percent to 50 percent in emissions in the future. During the APEC meetings last year, everyone had good weather, which President Xi Jinping referred to as “APEC blue”. Major pollutants at the time were more than halved, and we saw blue skies and clouds.