A legislator from Shandong province has been hailed for his persistence over the past five years to push for new regulations to tackle air pollution and improve the nation's management of the environment.

A deputy to the National People's Congress for the past seven years, Song Xinfang, director of the Honeybee Research Institute of Dongying, Shandong province, submitted an anti-smog proposal this year. Last year, smog affected more than 100 cities, prompting the central government to enact a number of measures to curb pollution.

In March 2013, he proposed that the number of vehicles allowed on roads and the consumption of coal be reduced in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, and in Guangdong province. After his 2013 proposal, the Ministry of Environmental Protection required that levels of PM 2.5 drop by 25 percent in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei hub, 20 percent in the Yangtze River Delta region and 15 percent in the Pearl River Delta region based on the amount of emissions in 2012.