China's serious pollution anger spills into state media. Will CCP listen?

[Freely]

By Neil Connor | AFP News – 12 hours ago

Public anger in China at dangerous levels of air pollution, which blanketed Beijing in acrid smog, spread Monday as state media queried official transparency and the nation's breakneck development.

The media joined Internet users in calling for a re-evaluation of China's modernisation process, which has seen rapid urbanisation and dramatic economic development at the expense of the environment.

Dense smog shrouded large swathes of northern China at the weekend, cutting visibility to 100 metres (yards) in some areas and forcing flight cancellations. Reports said dozens of building sites and a car factory in the capital halted work as an anti-pollution measure.

Doctors at two of the city's major hospitals said the number of patients with respiratory problems had increased sharply in the past few days, state media reported.

"Now it has been dark with pollution for three days, at least people are starting to realise how important the environment is," said one posting on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.

At the height of the smog Beijing authorities said readings for PM2.5 -- particles small enough deeply to penetrate the lungs -- hit 993 micrograms per cubic metre, almost 40 times the World Health Organisation's safe limit.

Experts quoted by state media blamed low winds, saying fog had mixed with pollutants from vehicles and factories and had been trapped by mountains north and west of Beijing. Coal burning in winter was also a factor, they added.

In an editorial Monday the state-run Global Times called for more transparent figures on pollution and urged the government to change its "previous method of covering up the problems and instead publish the facts".

Officials in China have a long history of covering up environmental and other problems.

Earlier this month a chemical spill into a river was only publicly disclosed five days after it happened, and authorities were widely criticised for initially denying the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003.

Official PM2.5 statistics have only been released for China's biggest conurbations since the beginning of last year, and expanded to cover 74 cities earlier this month.

The tightly-controlled media has previously raised concerns over health problems linked to industrialisation. Observers say the statistics' increasing availability has forced them to confront the issue more directly.

The Xinhua state news agency criticised the "pollutant belt" that had spread across the country and warned that the authorities' stated goal of building a "beautiful China" was in jeopardy.

"A country with a brown sky and hazardous air is obviously not beautiful," it said.

"The environmental situation facing the country will be increasingly challenging," it said. "There is no reason to be too optimistic."

On Monday the Ministry of Environmental Protection announced measures to tackle the problem.

It pledged to limit vehicle exhaust emissions and promote the use of clean energy as well as step up the development of public transport systems in urban areas, state news agency Xinhua said.

The environmental watchdog also asked local authorities to increase their analysis of air pollution and publicise the results quickly as part of an early warning system for air quality, Xinhua reported.

Smog levels eased in the capital Monday, with the national monitoring centre putting the PM2.5 AQI figure at 183, or "light pollution", in the evening -- although the US embassy gave it a "hazardous" 335.

Levels remained high in many parts of China, with PM 2.5 AQI standing at 405 in Zhengzhou south of Beijing and 342 in Xian to the southwest.

Share prices of environment-related companies surged, with face mask producer Shanghai Dragon soaring by its 10 percent daily limit.

The smog dominated discussion on Sina Weibo. "This pollution is making me so angry," said one user, posting a picture of herself wearing a face mask.
Thanks to all the great answers from Mao, Lim and particularly to Average American Chinese. Glad that she has finally learnt the American way, with guts to criticize those in power.
Great answer WNL! The CCP guys are making use of the dark daylight to go around collect bribery money without being seen.

[Miao Tsetung]

As you can see from he above answer, many fanatics want to see China poison its own people if it means military the will advance in power and upset its peaceful neighbors.

Blaming it on car sales is ridiculous. It is the coal-driven factories that are largely responsible. Factories in Shenzhen have been causing serious pollution problems in Hong Kong for more than one decade.

Unfortunately, China will self-destruct from within due to the CCP's greed and lust for power.

[VulgarDestroyer481]

i hope they listen, otherwise more people will emigrate which means more money will flow to foreign countries. i was going to move into a mainly white neighborhood in the burbs but recent years many chinese bought property in the other side of the pacific aka California so i used to be the minority here and i feel so unique but now it seems more and more chinese and asian are moving here i feel i'm majority here i'm no longer unique, i don't like it.

i saw the pictures of beijing, the smog is so scary, and a 3 bedroom apartment is 5 million yuan! lol....why do people spend a fortune to live in a city that will reduce their life by 5 years at least is beyond me. you can never run in beijing! i hope they cancel the annual marathon this year.

[Lim Yuan]

For years people have been saying Beijing had a pollution problem yet it was blamed on "Western" media trying to bad month China.

Yes the CCP will listen this time, much akin to the great smog of London in 1952, however, this was caused by post-war recoveries and was at a time when environmental technology wasn't as good as it is today. The social health pressures it caused and the stopping of daily routines pressures the government into doing something about it. There are many sources of pollution in Beijing not just cars. If not it will just happen again and again each year.

Why does Western media often end up knowing more about what happens in China than Chinese media.

[roundcherry291]

The CCP is listening. And, here is what they're doing about it...
Check the travel itineraries of the Standing Committee, and try to find any of them walking around Beijing, addressing the problems personally, during this bout of excessive air pollution.

It's a man-made disaster, and the men who made it are nowhere nearby to be found.

@Lim Yuan - In answer to your final question: Let's just call it "The Long March Mentality".