China's environmental deterioration emerged long before the World War II, resulting from rapid population growth and urbanisation, continued deforestation and the use of coal for power generation, factory operation and household heating. It has been accentuated during the postwar period by the government policy under socialist reconstruction which had given a top priority to industrialization without regard to environmental conservation and protection. The opening-up of the Chinese economy since 1978 under the leadership of Teng Xiao Ping to the rest of the world through foreign trade and investment, while accelerating econoic growth, industrialization, and urbanization, tended to worsen China's environment throughout the 1980's and early 1990's in the absence of both environmental awareness of the people and a determined government policy to preserve the environment. It has been only recently since the mid-1990s when the government began a frontal attack on environmental destruction through national legislation and administration. Fruits of the new government environment policy has been yielding some welcome results particularly in metropolitan areas, but not necessarily in vast rural areas of the country.