With around 70% of its electricity generated from coal fired power stations and a huge demand for coke to make steel, China's hunger for coal is insatiable. This puts enormous pressure on the country's coalmines which are notorious for being amongst the most dangerous in the world.
No matter what the topic, it seems that accusations of corruption are never far from the news here in China. In the past few weeks alone, corruption has reared its ugly head in everything from soccer match-fixing and the courts to accident cover-ups and the way funds were apportioned for rebuilding parts of Sichuan following the 2008 earthquake.
It's like an incurable disease. Corruption in China is a major source of frustration among Chinese people. President Hu has called corruption the single most important threat to the power of the Communist Party. Yet the problem seems to be growing.
With corruption cropping up in many areas of society as we've just heard, we asked ordinary Chinese citizens for their views on the topic. Here's what they had to say in today's edition of Straight from the Street.
The Beijing Olympics introduced the FuWa cartoon characters to the world. In the future, China hopes to introduce many more cartoon and animated characters. Susan Tart reports.