China’s “strictest air protection law” yet took effect on January 1, 2016, promising to bring big changes to its smog-filled cities. But some municipal governments have been ahead of the curve, working to clean up the air through experimentation and innovation. Shenzhen, China’s first special economic zone and which recently passed its neighbor Hong Kong to lead China’s most competitive cities, is one of these.

In December 2015, Beijing issued its first-ever “red alert” for smog, its highest air pollution warning, which closed schools and restricted the number of cars on the road. Less than two weeks later, it issued its second.

The recent news that China has been underreporting its already globe-leading coal consumption by nearly 20 percent for the last decade underscores the scale of its air pollution crisis.

China’s announcement of a nationwide cap-and-trade program is a sign that the government is serious in its “war against pollution,” says China Environment Forum Director Jennifer Turner, and it may help move the climate change discussion in the United States too.

There’s perhaps no better evidence of China’s growing appetite for American agricultural products than the ongoing transformation of the port of Oakland.

The announcement in Washington on September 24 that President Xi Jinping is committing China to a national carbon trading system is the latest step in an important partnership between the two biggest carbon emitters in the world.