Changing priorities

On January 12, 2017, Zhao Chenxin, Spokesperson of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a press briefing that China would implement a new assessment mechanism for government officials in which officials’ performance would be evaluated mainly based on various environment-related indicators, including resources utilization, environment quality, ecological protection, green lifestyle and public satisfaction.

Under the new mechanism, indicators related to economic growth only carry a weight value of 9.2 percent, less than half of that related to environment such as resources utilization and environment quality, which stood at 29.3 percent and 19.2 percent