The Washington Post reports: "On Chinese social media, people vented about the even-worse-than-usual weather, worrying about the prospect of lung cancer and lamenting the limits of the state response. "Waiting for the wind to change is how the government deals with air pollution," one person wrote. China's leaders say they share the concern and have vowed, repeatedly, to wage war on bad air. In November 2014, as China welcomed world leaders to an APEC summit, President Xi Jinping conceded that he checked pollution readings every day. 'These days the first thing I have been doing after getting up in the morning is check how Beijing's air quality is and hope there is less smog so that all these guests from distant places will feel more comfortable,' he said in a televised speech."
The Associated Press reports: "Beijing's about-face began last year when President Xi Jinping, in a joint declaration with his American counterpart, Barack Obama, set a 2030 deadline for emissions to stop rising. This June, Beijing promised to cut carbon emissions per unit of economic output by 65 percent from 2005 levels. In September, Xi pledged $3.1 billion to help developing countries combat climate change...Without a formal commitment, China is making faster progress than most countries as a side effect of Communist Party efforts to nurture more self-sustaining growth based on consumer spending and technology instead of trade and energy-hungry heavy industry. Pollution has 'created immense and escalating social pressures for change'"
Bloomberg News reports: "China took another step to boost the yuan's global usage, saying it will start direct trading with the Swiss franc, as the nation pushes its case for reserve-currency status at the International Monetary Fund. The link will start on Tuesday, the China Foreign Exchange Trade System said in a statement, making the franc the seventh major currency that can bypass a conversion into the U.S. dollar and be directly exchanged for yuan...'This is an important step in strengthening bilateral economic and trade connections between China and Switzerland,' the People's Bank of China said in a statement on its website on Monday. The link will help lower conversion costs and facilitate the use of both currencies in bilateral trade, it added."