China to set up $1.6 billion fund to help fight smog

China said on Wednesday it would set up a 10 billion yuan ($1.65 billion) fund to fight air pollution, offering rewards for companies that clean up operations. Pollution increasingly worries China's stability-obsessed leaders, anxious to douse potential unrest as more affluent city dwellers turn against a growth-at-all-costs economic model that has poisoned much of the country's air, water and soil. Authorities have issued innumerable orders and policies to try and clean up China, investing in projects to fight pollution and empowering courts to hand down the death penalty in serious cases. Premier Li Keqiang told a cabinet meeting the central government would set up the 10 billion yuan fund to "use rewards to replace subsidies to fight air pollution in key areas", the government said in a statement.