Worsening local environmental conditions in China?

One of the plausible hypotheses I have seen raised is that China’s internal environmental problems (air, water) are improving but it is the regional and global problems that are continuing to worsen. This article in The Economist suggests that internal problems are not improving – they are worsening. The only possible ray of light is the attempt by the authorities to reduce energy intensities but here too there are problems – Chinese energy-intensity data are as wobbly as other indicators:

“In 2006 China set a target of a 20% cut by 2010 of its energy intensity (the amount of energy consumed per unit of GDP). As some 70% of China’s energy comes from coal, efforts to achieve this have been closely watched. After successive years of improvement, the first quarter of this year saw a big reversal, with energy intensity increasing by 3.2%. But on August 3rd new data showed that in the first half of the year, energy intensity nudged up by a mere 0.09% compared with the same period a year ago. This implied a huge recent improvement.

As The Economist notes perhaps warnings by the prime minister, Mr. Wen Jiabao, that an “iron hand” would be used to meet the target, will have an effect.

China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection has a 2008 State of the Environment Report here. I’ve read of a more recent report but cannot track done more than some isolated observations.