Full of Hot PM2.5

Worried that attending the APEC Summit in Beijing next year would warrant the use of face masks and Hazmat suits, Zhao Huimin was grilled over the plans to curb air pollution in the city at the end of this year's meet up.  Under pressure to clean up the air ahead of the 2014 summit, Zhao put his foot right in it when he suggested in a TV interview that Chinese cooking might be responsible for pushing levels of PM2.5 up to levels far too dangerous to even look at, let alone breathe.

Not wanting to give away how much money is being apportioned to the project to reduce air pollution, Zhao simply said that more money was being spent than during the Olympics (a mere five years ago).  Confident that Beijing's more "mature" guidelines concerning air pollution would be in place by 2014, a brief glance over Zhao's career suggests that he might not be the best person for the job.

Last summer, Zhao was the guest of honor at the much ballyhooed Foreign Language Festival, were plans were announced to remove signs and menus written in Chinglish in a an effort to make Beijing at least look like "a more international city".  A year later, not much has changed, despite Zhao's office publishing "local standards for English translation of public signs, menus, organization names and official positions".

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