To Fight Against Smog, China Bans Coal in 28 Cities

Oiwan Lam  |  Global Voices As winter approaches, Beijing is gearing up to fight against smog and a large number of cities in northern China have issued a ban on coal. In the past few years, China had been hit by seriously air pollution in winters and major cities in northern China had recorded pollutants, […]

Defending ‘National Feelings’ Not a High Priority for Most Chinese

Epoch Times Wang Haitao, head of the economics department at The Beijing News, compares the Chinese regime’s attitude toward two different kinds of injury of its citizens in a blog post on Jan. 25. In one case, when the injury is imagined and caused by a foreign country, the government is outraged and proactive; in […]

China Reins in Smog Warnings Amid ‘Confusion’ Over Pollution Alerts

Yang Fan  |  Radio Free Asia China’s meteorological bureau may be ordered to stop issuing smog warnings, sparking fears that the government may be getting ready to censor air pollution data centrally. The country’s Meteorological Administration reportedly told regional bureaus on Tuesday to “immediately stop issuing smog alerts,” in a photograph of an official notice […]

In 2016, a Toxic Political Smog Spread Over China and Hong Kong

Oiwan Lam  |  Global Voices For more than two weeks, 23 Chinese cities have been under a red alert warning citizens to take extreme precautions in light of a toxic smog that has invaded their territories. The smog cloud carries more than 300 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter, which is hazardous to human health. Netizens have […]

Beijing Issues Red Smog Alert As Toxic Air Pollution Smothers Northern China

Xin Lin and Yang Fan  |  Radio Free Asia Environmental protection officials on Friday called on the government to issue red smog alerts for 23 cities in northern China after Beijing issued a red alert for air pollution. In what state media said was likely the worst smog since autumn, officials in Beijing had already […]

Smog in China’s Sichuan Sparks Protests From Students, Elderly

Qiao Long  |  Radio Free Asia Authorities in the southwestern province of Sichuan on Friday deployed riot police to clamp down on spontaneous anti-smog protests in the provincial capital, Chengdu. Its residents, unused to the toxic brown haze that regularly engulfs more northern cities like Beijing, came out in spontaneous protest on Friday, both online […]

New Measures to Fight Pollution in China?

Greenpeace Millions of people in China are breathing a hazardous cocktail of chemicals every day. These chemicals are caused by coal-fired power plants, factories and vehicles, and are responsible for heart disease, stroke, respiratory illnesses, birth defects and cancer. Of particular concern is PM2.5 (particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm) air pollution. In […]

China Declares ‘People’s War’ on Pollution As Smog Envelops Beijing

Yang Fan and Xin Lin  |  Radio Free Asia As Beijing geared up for the annual session of the country’s parliament on Thursday amid a grey pall of smog, a top government adviser declared a “People’s War” on pollution, sparking widespread ridicule and criticism at the use of old Maoist jargon. “The fight against smog […]

Even Santa Can't Escape Toxic Smog in China

<![CDATA[Oiwan Lam  |  Global Voices This article by Oiwan Lam originally appeared on Global Voices on 26 December 2015. During Christmas as toxic smog spread from the northern provinces to central China, the country’s netizens expressed concern that air pollution will become the new “normal” as official state media continues to twist a positive angle out of the bad news. On […]

It’s Official: China Fakes Economic Numbers

<!–[CDATA[ Valentin Schmid  |  Epoch Times Everybody knew it but it took a while to become official.  In the case of overstated Chinese GDP figures, we now have confirmation from the Chinese state mouthpiece Xinhua that they have been made up for a long period of time, at least on the regional level. This is just short of the National Audit Office […]