LETTERS

Air pollution has been one of the top concerns of Beijingers over recent months， in fact， years. One of my friends joked that the fi rst step of his plan for the future was to live to retirement age [60 for men and 55 for most women at present]. There is talk here about taking half the city’s cars off the road on days of heavy haze to reduce emissions， and others suggest extra fees on car ownership to discourage car use. Understandably， most people I know don’t buy into these overtures， and I see them as a stopgap rather than a long-term solution. The 2013 Beijing， Tianjin and Hebei Development Report shows that Beijing’s

population density spiked from 766 to 1，230 people per square kilometer from 1999 to 2011， well above the city’s bearing capacity. With heavy polluting industries already relocated out of the city years ago， it is this gigantic population that is the underlying cause of various types of pollution， traffi c congestion， water crises and many other developmental problems facing Beijing residents.

Zheng Mingtian

Beijing， China

There has been a steady stream of reports about factories stealthily discharging wastewater into rivers， lakes and seas. But the most shocking of recent times are reports that some chemical and ethanol plants and paper mills have been pumping wastewater underground， soiling the aquifer. A crisis of contaminated drinking water is already unfurling in many parts of China， and fears of a polluted water epidemic have gained momentum in recent years. Heavy-hand measures must be adopted to fi ght these attacks against the environment， and law enforcement has to be enhanced in underdeveloped regions where local offi cials are prone to turning a blind eye to polluting factories for fear of loss of tax revenues.

Xu Xiaoping

Liaoyuan， Liaoning Province， China

The recent car crash that left fi ve dead and dozens injured at Tian’anmen Square once again sparked accusations in some foreign media of China’s unfair ethnic policies in Xinjiang. China has long been accused of trying to purge Uygur culture in the autonomous region by teaching in Mandarin Chinese in local schools. As an interpreter， I went on a reporting trip with some foreign journalists to Xinjiang years ago， during which we visited a primary school in a rural Uygur community. Its students have classes in both Chinese and Uygur. The headmaster said that some schools in the region offer curriculum in Uygur only， and the rest teach in two languages. Most parents prefer a bilingual education， as mastery in an extra language means better career prospects. In a small town we visited， I tried to buy a scarf at a stall manned by a Uygur girl in her early 20s， but， on fi nding that she couldn’t speak a single word of Mandarin Chinese， not even the numbers to give me a price， I had to give up. This is clearly going to become detrimental to her business， as tourism in the region is a growing source of income.

Li Xiurong

Chengdu， Sichuan Province， China