中國防治冬季污染措施減慢工業增長

China’s manufacturing sector slowed last month as strict measures to curb winter pollution forced factories to cut production, the latest sign of policymakers’ increasing willingness to sacrifice economic growth in favour of other priorities.

中國製造業增速上月放緩，因限制冬季污染的嚴格措施迫使工廠減產，這個最新跡象表明政策制定者越來越願意犧牲經濟增長以支持其他優先事項。

Environmental inspections have prompted thousands of factory and mine closures across northern China. Hebei province, the centre of the country’s steel industry, said in September it would cut production by as much as half in large cities.

環境檢查已促使中國北方數千家工廠和礦區關閉。今年9月，中國鋼鐵業重鎮河北省表示，將把大城市的產量削減至多一半。

“The resulting blue skies over Beijing have upended the conventional wisdom that local government officials would always put economic growth over the environment,” wrote Yanmei Xie, analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics, a Beijing-based research company.

北京研究公司龍洲經訊(Gavekal Dragonomics)的分析師謝豔梅寫道：“由此出現的北京上空的藍天顛覆了傳統看法，即地方政府官員永遠將經濟增長置於環境之上。”