Reforms are being put in place and things are slowly getting better, but very slowly indeed. A report in the New York Times 2007 had a similarly bleak tag line:

Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Health, industrial pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death. The ruling elite are concerned about the problem and are making legislation, but because the country is so very, very screwed even the most drastic of measures will have little effect for decades.