According to Reuters, "Nearly 90 percent of China's big cities failed to meet air quality standards in 2014, but that was still an improvement on 2013 as the country's 'war on pollution' began to take effect, the environment ministry said on Monday...only eight of the 74 cities it monitors managed to meet national standards in 2014 on a series of pollution measures such as PM2.5, which is a reading of particles found in the air, carbon monoxide and ozone. Amid growing public disquiet about smog and other environmental risks, China said last year it would 'declare war on pollution' and it has started to eliminate substandard industrial capacity and reduce coal consumption. In 2013, only three cities - Haikou on the island province of Hainan, the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and the coastal resort city of Zhoushan - met the standards." 

The New York Times writes, "Pro-democracy protesters streamed through the heart of Hong Kong on Sunday in their first sizable show of strength since the police cleared occupations that blocked streets for 11 weeks late last year. The protest was much smaller and milder than the 'Occupy' protests that ended in mid-December, and fell well short of the 50,000 participants that organizers had promised. In the end, they estimated that 13,000 people joined, while the police estimated that the crowd reached 8,800 at its peak. But the march was a tentative test of how much support the pro-democracy groups could muster in the new year for their campaign to force the government into accepting open elections for the city's top official."  

"China warned the United States on Monday that it was opposed to any country meeting the Dalai Lama 'in any manner' after the White House said U.S. President Barack Obama would attend an event with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader whom Beijing brands a separatist. 'China is opposed to any nation or government using the Tibet issue to interfere in China's domestic affairs, and opposed to any country's leader meeting with the Dalai Lama in any manner,'... 'China hopes the U.S. side abides by its promises on the Tibet issue, and proceeds to appropriately handle the issue on the basis of the overall condition of bilateral relations,'" reports Reuters.