When Lightning Strikes Fire(1)

In the end he relented, and chose not to take the 50 meter leap to his death. Instead, he crawled down from the blast furance, his body reeking of alcohol and his face covered in tears. Without looking back, this veteran worker finally departed his former steel mill.

Ten minutes later, the blast furnace was blown up.

Within three days of taking office, Liu Jianjun, the new party secretary of Hebei's Changli city, had demolished seven of nine steel mills in the city. The two remaining ones have a limited period of time to make changes. In the two months that followed, he told many other small steel mills to stop operations.

"The number one problem I'm facing right now is Changli city's social stability. My backbone has been broken..."

Lightning Strikes

Changli is known as "The Gold Coast" due to its proximity to the Bohai Sea. In the summer, it attracts droves of tourists.

But this is of no interest to Liu. "I've no mind to enjoy the sunlight or the scenery. I've been here less than two months and I'm already on pins and needles. I must take action, otherwise the consequences will be even more serious," says Liu.

By the end of March, Liu had been officially transferred to his current post. Before that, he had been the director of the Qinhuangdao environmental protection department for four years. He says that the original logic behind him being sent to Changli was not its worsening environmental problems, nor was it to have him specifically strike at the steel mills. Instead, it was according to environmental regulation. These businesses are not conforming with industry or environmental standards. And up until now, they relied on favor by departments with vested interests to deceive the public and survive.

In Changli, twelve small and large businesses conduct operations with a business license, but their projects have undergone poor environmental assessments or their pollution discharge licenses are not sound, if they have them at all. How can these businesses go ahead with their operations without intervention by law-enforcement? Liu believes that watchdog agencies have been lax and turning a blind eye to them for a long time, but that government departments having vested interests is the root cause.

In April, the prevention of journalists for the CCTV show "Economics Half Hour" from gathering information on Changli's polluting industries directly hardened Liu's resolve to clean up the steel mills.