Beijing to step up air quality control for APEC: report

BEIJING (Xinhua) - China will strengthen air pollution control in its capital Beijing during the APEC senior officials' meeting this month through stricter emergency actions in the event of a pollution warning, Saturday's China Daily reported.

Beijing is hosting the Third Senior Officials' Meeting and related meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Beijing from Aug. 6 to 21, including some 100 sessions covering topics such as trade, investment, agriculture, food and anti-corruption.

The city will launch tougher, comprehensive measures to control air pollution for the events, said Yao Hui, deputy director of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, adding that updates on air quality will be issued and sent to the public quickly if air quality worsens.

If the air quality index is expected to top 200 for three consecutive days, an orange alert, the second highest in China's four-level warning system, will be issued, but the city will put into place pollution control measures usually called for under a red alert, the highest level, the report said.

Such measures include banning the use of 70 percent of government vehicles and restricting the use of private vehicles based on even- and odd-numbered license plates, among others.

Beijing has yet to issue a red alert for air pollution since the emergency plan was put into effect last November.