Exactly, and even in china I imagine the coal plants have at least a basic filtration system, not to mention European coal plants. Which of course no home fireplace has.
It really depends. I am not located in China, but our problems are pretty similar in nature. We have a lot of smaller, I am not sure what they're called, boiler houses? One to two-storey pipes with zero emission control, piping out black smoke 24/7 for most of the year.