China's air pollution: Remarkable progress and ongoing challenges under new standards from combined surface-satellite...

As China transitions toward a health-oriented air quality management strategy driven by the growing public demand for a higher quality of life, assessing the readiness for tighter, health-based ambient standards is critical. This study integrates nationwide ground observations (1312 stations), multi-satellite retrievals, and the Multi-Resolution Emission Inventory for China to analyse spatiotemporal changes in PM_2.5, PM₁₀, CO, SO₂, NO₂, NMVOCs, and O₃ from 2015 to 2024. Results show marked declines in primary pollutants: national averages decreased by 41.3 % (PM_2.5), 39.3 % (PM₁₀), 36.6 % (CO), 67.7 % (SO₂), and 26.6 % (NO₂). However, current standards remain insufficient to meet escalating public health expectations relative to international benchmarks. Under newly proposed 2026 standards, regional compliance would drop sharply; for example, PM_2.5 attainment in the Yangtze River Delta would fall from 93.5 % to 10.3 %. For secondary pollutants, satellite data reveal persistently high NMVOC tracers (formaldehyde and glyoxal), with no significant decrease. And surface ozone increased by 21 % over the decade, with regimes shift toward NO_x-limited conditions. Regional disparities are evident: the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region showed the highest pollution levels but also the steepest reductions, whereas the Pearl River Delta, though largely compliant for PM under the new standards, struggles with ozone and remains a glyoxal hotspot. A transient rebound in PM_2.5 and NO₂ after the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions was followed by renewed declines in 2024, underscoring the resilience of structural emission controls. Future efforts should focus on tightening PM standards, enhancing VOC monitoring, integrating multi-platform observations with advanced models, and leveraging multi-platform observations to support the next phase of health-centric air quality governance.