China's minister of environment is untested newbie

Beijing

A YEAR after "declaring war"on pollution, China has appointed an inexperienced outsider as its new environment minister tasked with breathing life into a massive clean-up campaign that even optimists say will take decades to complete.

Beijing has vowed to reverse the damage done to its skies, rivers and soil during China's three-decade dash for growth, putting its under-resourced environment ministry under pressure for results. Leading that drive will be Chen Jining, 51, an environmental scientist and president of China's Tsinghua University, who was appointed Minister of Environmental Protection on Friday.