China's 8-Year-Old Lung Cancer Girl

With a 56% rise in lung cancer rates in a mere nine years, it can't be argued that the air quality in most of China is bad for you.  Horror stories have trickled out of the mainland, but none quite like the latest: an eight year girl being treated for lung cancer.  Proof, if proof were needed, that living next to a busy main road in Jiangsu and spending most of your time breathing in air that only slightly cleaner than an airport smoking lounge is actually not helping your lungs.

Politicians in the country have been adamant about blaming other things, from the Chinese "style" of cooking to the exhaust fumes of the millions of cars on the road - in fact anything that didn't include factories and coal fired electricity generators.

At the end of last month, Fang Li, deputy head of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said  "Beijing is an open city. All social forces will be mobilized and international advanced technologies and enterprises are welcome," when he announced that the city plans to invest 1 trillion RMB into cleaning up the air.  Whether those plans involve punishing factories that illegally pollute and routinely escape punishment because of the guanxi that their CEO has is another matter entirely.