Environmental concerns on rise

Worries over Sanhe's "new cement projects" are just a reflection of the world's concerns about China's environment. At least some of these worries spring from the impact of China's massive stimulus package, intended to ensure 8-percent economic growth.

The country's 4-trillion yuan (about 585 billion U.S. dollars) package, unveiled late last year to help the world's third-largest economy during the global downturn, gave rise to worries that the government might sacrifice its environment to boost the economy.

Overseas media organizations have reported that China had approved more new polluting projects, as most of its investment had or would go to the real economy, such as infrastructure projects, rather than into the financial sector.

Bloomberg said in a March report that China might be letting its "green goals" fall by the wayside as it trimmed spending on energy-saving and emission-reduction projects in the massive stimulus package, citing environmental groups.

There have also been overseas media reports that China might have eased its grip on environmental reviews of new projects, as the government was taking less time to examine and approve projects.

According to Bloomberg, the Ministry of Environmental Protection had announced that it would reduce the time needed for environmental-impact assessments of projects to two days from five, which was taken as a "worrying sign."

China's "government has squandered a chance to use the downturn to put China on a cleaner growth path, and has instead laid the foundation for another toxic cycle of hypergrowth," New York Times said, citing the views of environmentalists.