Its true that a large portion of China's pollution is created by coal in factories and in home. However, places like San Fransisco had a cloud of smog over it when I flew in. Likewise, the friend I am talking about who has difficulty breathing because of pollution lives in Chicago.
Because the Prius uses a miller cycle engine, or atkinson, it is able to reduce the amount of exhaust drastically. It emits 90% less NOx than the average new car. (Even more if compared to diesel)
The Prius uses plant derived plastics which means it does not have to use petroleum that is harmful to the environment.
The Prius' battery is completely recyclable with mild chemicals and Toyota already has a recycling program for those batteries since Nickle is relatively valuable.
If you don't think this is the answer, do you know a better solution?
Fuel cells/Hydrogen require lots of energy to extract the Hydrogen which originates back to coal though power plants. If the whole country used hydrogen we wouldn't be able to use sunlight or water to power the process. Hydrogen is simply too inefficient compared to a gallon of gasoline. A hydrogen powered car was featured in an article, it has 2 large tanks that were stored in the trunk and it only had a range of 200 miles.
Therefore, hydrogen/fuel cells must not be what you are thinking of.