AT A MEDIA BRIEFING on Friday, Chen Jining, minister of environmental protection, said he "felt guilty" for the air pollution that has inconvenienced people's lives. Cai Qi, acting mayor of Beijing, expressed similar concerns at a seminar on Saturday that was also attended by 16 citizen representatives. Beijing News commented on Sunday:

Instead of equivocating about the severe air pollution in North China, the two senior officials sought to address it in a candid manner. They not only conveyed how serious the lingering smog was but also proposed long-term, sustainable measures to keep the sky clear.

Such sincerity should make residents and officials in smog-stricken cities like Beijing reach a consensus on how to curb pollution. At the Saturday seminar, the acting mayor admitted that the forecast for heavy air pollution was not accurate enough and some local governments failed to take necessary precautions. He also said diesel-powered trucks, which account for just 5 percent of all local vehicles, could generate nearly half of the oxynitride emissions from vehicles.