China’s newly declared “war on pollution” includes measures designed to curb smog and speed up industrial reform, particularly for the country’s massive state enterprises. The question now is whether those influential companies will water down the measures, as they have previous attempts at environmental controls. At a once-a-year meeting of China’s legislature, government officials pledged a series of reforms and pollution-reduction targets that take aim at energy-intensive heavy industries such as steel, aluminum, cement and coal. Officials said they are aimed at addressing the bouts of heavy air pollution that have plagued some major cities and generated headlines even among media outlets tightly controlled by the state. “Smog is affecting large parts of China, and environmental pollution has become a major problem, which is nature’s red-light warning against the model of inefficient and blind development,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in a speech to China’s legislature on Wednesday. “We […]