I am not sure about Beijing, but in Shanghai, the government actions licence plates to limit, they say, the amount of vehicles on the roads, but in reality, such limitations just mean more cars carrying out of town plates. So having an in-town only plate policy would do wonders in Shanghai at least.

Another measure to combat air pollution and alleviate the dangers on Chinese city roads would be to start strictly enforcing road rules and banning drivers for point losses 1st offence 6 months, 2nd 1 year, 3rd 3 years. This would empty city streets in a hurry.

Another solution would be to follow and enforce the emissions standards of developed cities like Tokyo that have far more people and far more cars than Beijing or Shanghai (greater Tokyo has about 30 million). The air in Tokyo is easily 100 times cleaner than Beijing or Shanghai on it’s dirtiest day (coincidentally, bad air in Tokyo typically comes from, you guessed it, China!). Also, developing better public transport, like Tokyo, would also help. (Did you know you can see the Tokyo Sky Tree up to 70 km away?! The Pudong towers are sometimes invisible from across the HongPu! And are only visible 30 km away about 3 days a year!)

And perhaps the most important measure, which might actually be doable in this workers paradise would be to remove everyone who does not have a city registration from China’s cities and send them back to the farm. China is the worlds 3rd largest country with the world’s greatest number of people. Is there any damn reason why half of them should all live in 9 or 10 major cities? China does have “uninhabited zones” believe it or not. Send every waidiren home or to those zones and the air in Chinese cities would improve greatly.