Report On the State of the Environment In China
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	Mr. Wen Jiabao, Premier of the State Council at a study tour at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences
Mr. Zeng Peiyan, Vice Premier of the State Council, at the National Work Meeting on the Prevention and Control of Pollution in Key River Basins

In 2003, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee convened for seventh consecutive year the Symposium on Population, Resources, and Environment during the National Congress and the China People's Political and Consultative Conference sessions. At the symposium, General Secretary Hu Jintao stated the following: 'Environmental protection should enable people to drink clean water, breathe clean air, eat healthful food, and live and work in a good environment.' The 3rd Plenary Session of the 16th National Congress of the CCP re-stated that 'the developments of human beings and nature should be harmonized', and that 'a comprehensive, integrated, and sustainable development concept should be established to promote the overall development of society, economy and human beings'. 

The environmental quality of 2003 did not change much compared with that of the previous year. The percentage of cities that met national Grade II air quality was 41.7%, which was 7.9% higher than the previous year, but air pollution in cities was still serious. The scale of acid rain zones had been basically stabilized, but pollution had become worse in certain regions in Hunan, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi. The water quality of major river systems was about the same as the previous year. Among them, pollution had been alleviated in Hai River, Liao River, and Huaihe River, but had become worse in Songhuajiang River and the Pearl River. Pollution had become worse in the offshore areas of the Yellow sea. Pollution had been alleviated, though still serious, in the offshore areas of Bohai Sea and the East Sea. Water quality in the offshore areas of the South Sea was about the same as the previous year. Noise in cities had been put under control. More than half of all cities had relatively good acoustic environment in urban areas, and nearly 80% of cities had relatively good acoustic environment on roads. But noise pollution was still one of the environmental nuisances which urban residents complained about the most.