Described as a "breath of fresh air" in the China's mismanaged anti-pollution campaign, new environment chief Chen Jining, 51, faces a herculean task compounded by his own political weakness.

To the surprise of many, Beijing appointed Chen, an inexperienced outsider, environmental scientist and president of China's prestigious Tsinghua University, as Minister of Environmental Protection on Feb. 28.

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As environment tzar, Chen's mammoth challenge is to oversee a massive, nationwide clean-up campaign of China's heavily polluted ecosystem that even the most optimistic say might take half a century to complete.

China has very belatedly awakened to the ecological, economic, social and health problems triggered by the unabated air, land and water pollution caused by its uncontrolled drive for economic growth over the past three decades.

Alarmingly, China's new and tougher environmental laws only came into effect this January. Chen only held his first news conference on March 1 since assuming his position. During the press conference, Chen emphasized that environmental laws can't be broken. He said business firms and local governments need to observe the law.

He also said 107 bosses of companies have been arrested after failing to complete environmental impact assessments or ignore warnings to stop polluting. The ministry has also launched a reporting platform on WeChat, China's largest messaging app, to urge Chinese to report any violations of the environmental law.

Chen's colleagues in the academe describe him as determined and well-organized. But they fear his inexperience and his being a political outsider with weak connections to the Communist Party could create difficulties as he tackles the internecine struggles among the Party bosses.

"What he is facing is not only technical problems, but the trade-off between economic growth and social development, and he will also need bureaucratic skills to settle internal disputes," said Ma Zhong, dean of the School of Environmental and Natural Resources at China's Renmin University.