In the end he relented, and chose not to take the 50 meter leap to his death. Instead, he crawled down from the blast furance, his body reeking of alcohol and his face covered in tears. Without looking back, this veteran worker finally departed his former steel mill.

Ten minutes later, the blast furnace was blown up.

Within three days of taking office, Liu Jianjun, the new party secretary of Hebei's Changli city, had demolished seven of nine steel mills in the city. The two remaining ones have a limited period of time to make changes. In the two months that followed, he told many other small steel mills to stop operations.

"The number one problem I'm facing right now is Changli city's social stability. My backbone has been broken..."

Lightning Strikes

Changli is known as "The Gold Coast" due to its proximity to the Bohai Sea. In the summer, it attracts droves of tourists.

But this is of no interest to Liu. "I've no mind to enjoy the sunlight or the scenery. I've been here less than two months and I'm already on pins and needles. I must take action, otherwise the consequences will be even more serious," says Liu.

By the end of March, Liu had been officially transferred to his current post. Before that, he had been the director of the Qinhuangdao environmental protection department for four years. He says that the original logic behind him being sent to Changli was not its worsening environmental problems, nor was it to have him specifically strike at the steel mills. Instead, it was according to environmental regulation. These businesses are not conforming with industry or environmental standards. And up until now, they relied on favor by departments with vested interests to deceive the public and survive.

In Changli, twelve small and large businesses conduct operations with a business license, but their projects have undergone poor environmental assessments or their pollution discharge licenses are not sound, if they have them at all. How can these businesses go ahead with their operations without intervention by law-enforcement? Liu believes that watchdog agencies have been lax and turning a blind eye to them for a long time, but that government departments having vested interests is the root cause.

In April, the prevention of journalists for the CCTV show "Economics Half Hour" from gathering information on Changli's polluting industries directly hardened Liu's resolve to clean up the steel mills.

On April 6, after the journalist's investigation had been interfered with, Liu personally organized a group of officials from various levels of government to inspect the nine steel mills. When talking about this experience, Liu is visibly moved. "Almost all of these mills were charged because they were breaking the law. In order to give expression to the strength and determination of this round of rectification, we blew up two furnaces."

But according to the new "Property Law", the government has no power to act against industrial facilities in this way. They can only use persuasion.

Consent of the Industry

The real demolishing period began after the government spent time seeking approval from interested parties, . It was at this moment one long-time worker grabbed a bottle of alcohol and scaled up a 50 meter blasting furnace at his mill, a last-ditch attempt to prevent its imminent demolition. "Upon seeing this a lot of people cried. But what could we do? We had to do our jobs," said Liu.

But other problems were to give Liu even bigger headaches.

The closing of the seven mills led to the unemployment of more than 10,000 residents of Changli. The ensuing question of social stability is something that Liu has no choice but to face.

"Some say I have bad luck, to be faced with the "environmental windstorm" just as I came into office, with all of the unemployed in the background pointing fingers. But I'm already used to it," says Liu with a hint of helplessness.

The Independence of Government Organs

The seven mills that have gone offline had made up 30 percent of Changli's tax revenue for that industry. The remaining two made up 70 percent. In this windstorm, two remaining mills that supposedly survived by good luck are in reality also violating regulations and have yet to undergo environmental assessments. They claim that by abiding by national standards for the industry, they avoided being demolished.

"Originally, we wanted to save three and shut down six, but after the investigation by CCTV, we decided to make an example of them and shut down seven," says Liu.

These shutdowns show that local government can completely guarantee the enforcement of environmental protection. But if all nine plants were breaking the law, why were two granted a grace period? In response to this, Liu draws an analogy, "The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC doesn't punish all officials in one sweep. To improve the overall situation, perhaps making examples of some is best."

Regarding conflict of interest among the environmental protection departments, Zhang Aijun, director of Changli's Ministry of Propaganda, says, "There are no special cases of these kinds of "vested interest" relationships. They exist all over China, the most we can do is look for ways to avoid them."

But if assessments of government are based solely on continuing GDP growth, and economic indicators are still the impetus for promoting local government functionaries, then as long as polluting businesses can shell out more taxes, local government has no incentive to play hardball and punish them.

Thus, the putting forth of the Green GDP report's assessment standards would bring local government to the table of enforcing environmental law, effectively weakenening the intimate relationships they have with local businesses. Before this, strengthening environmental watchdog agencies' independence from local government is a must.

A Different Urgency

"It's not that we haven't realized [these things]," says one worker as he witnesses his plant being demolished. "We also know that a healthy environment keeps people healthy. Nowadays people don't just talk about what to eat, but whether or not it's organic. But when you have nothing to eat, will you really think of that? Well, we already have nothing to eat, and at this point, what use is it for us to talk about protecting the environment?"

Zhang Qinglai, a plant director a Qinhuangdao's Anfeng Iron and Steel Group, says that the thresholds for entering the steel industry are becoming higher and higher, and the burdens are becoming more and more unbearable.

As far as national industry policy is concerned, Zhang says that they are not qualified to comment, but starting in 2005, market access was affected by new rules stating that factory sites were not allowed to construct new facilities. Increasing output could only be accomplished with current equipment, renovated facilities, or reorganized property.

He believes that what's most urgent now is that the government quickly produce policy to solve historically remaining problems that are leaving these smaller mills caught between mutual competition and government assessment. How do deal with and develop these businesses is a real issue.