PM2.5, once a little-known scientific term, has become familiar to the Chinese people in recent months. It is not only a gauge of air pollution but also a parameter of a country's development level.

The United States started monitoring fine particle levels in the 1970s but did not include PM2.5 in its national air quality standards until 1997. The United States issued the new fine particle standards not because of the deteriorating environmental pollution but because of the growing importance the country has attached to environmental protection and improvements amid increasing industrialization. As the people had stricter requirements for quality of life and the environment, PM2.5 readings replaced PM10 readings.

At present, most countries that have included PM2.5 in their air quality rating are developed countries. Developing countries such as China still have a long way to go to catch up with developed countries.

The Chinese people's requirements for air quality were much looser a few years ago. Now, they are far more sensitive to particulate matter in the air, indicating that their environmental awareness has enhanced, and their requirements for air quality have become stricter. Social progress is bound to bring higher standards. China recently announced a new poverty line, which attracted worldwide attention.

China's development is a kind of great-leap-forward development but not a simple copy of developed countries' old road. China spent only 30 years in completing a process that took developed countries 100 years to complete. It was a miracle, and the miracle should include a great-leap-forward development of environmental protection.

It has been recognized by the world that China has made great achievements in environmental protection in recent years, and many regions of China have made great environmental protection progress too. However, since many problems have accumulated in the course of China's economic development, the environmental protection task China faces is still very arduous and heavy.

Generally, the contradiction between Chinese people's higher requirement and China's actual environment protection situation has become more acute. Therefore, it has turned into a very practical issue of how China should raise its environmental protection level in a great-leap-forward way.

In general, China is still an international standard follower, and in most cases China only follows others to upgrade its standards passively. This kind of passivity has made China pay a very high price. However, since China is able to realize great-leap-forward developments in other areas such as the manufacturing industry and high-tech area and even could be the creator of some new standards, China is also able to take the lead in the world in the realm of environmental protection.

A good prospect for China's development is that China will not use the standards set by the United States or other developed countries to satisfy its people's demands for the quality of life but will make more Chinese standards turn into international standards.