Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has promised to use an ”iron hand” this summer to make China more energy-efficient. The central government has ordered cities to close inefficient factories by September, among them the vast Guangzhou Steel mill here, where most of the 6,000 workers will be laid off or pushed into early retirement.
Already, in the past three years, China has shut down more than a thousand older coal-fired power plants that used technology of the sort still common in the United States. China has also surpassed the rest of…