Air pollution problems in China worsened recently, threatening both the industrial sector and auto industry, most likely. According to the official Xinhua news agency, many of the largest cities are under “yellow alert.”

The agency reported:

China’s meteorological authorities on Sunday issued a yellow alert for a new bout of smog that is expected to hang heavy in large areas of the country.

Parts of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hunan and Jiangxi will be covered by smog from Sunday to Monday, with some regions seeing heavy pollution, the National Meteorological Center said in an online statement.

A cold front is expected to help disperse the smog on Monday night.

China has a four-tier warning system for severe weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

Despite government efforts to fight pollution, frequent outbreaks of smog have become increasingly common in the winter season in north China, where cold weather conditions and increasing burning of the dirty coal for heating combined to exacerbate the situation.

Whereas the control of heating from individual homes and small business may be hard to block, partial shutdowns of large factories and restriction of driving in big cities are steps the government can reliably take.

The last known massive shut down of factories was before the 2008 Olympics, but a more selective use of the same method is likely when air pollution spikes markedly.

Several times a year, large Chinese cities block much auto and truck traffic. The most recent case of this was just days ago.

According to ABC News:

China’s capital and other northern cities have banned half of all vehicles from city streets and ordered factories, schools and construction sites closed in response to a five-day smog red alert.

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