Xi'an is giving its government officials a pricey ultimatum: Work hard to clean up the city's dust and haze or face a career without a chance of getting promoted, Huashang Daily reported on Wednesday.

Wei Minzhou, chief of the city's Party committee, recently chaired a working conference to improve air pollution controls. Wei said the city suffers from a lack of funds to implement effective pollution control measures. He also said dust from construction sites and automobile exhaust have not been properly controlled, with some officials failing to give a full effort to curb pollution.

Wei warned that officials who did not pay enough attention to controlling air pollution would not be promoted.

Since January, Xi'an has been included on a top 10 list of the most polluted cities by the Ministry of Environment Protection. As the winter heating season approaches, more smog is expected and the city will face more serious air pollution.