Beijing’s Smoggy Skies Obscure China Slowdown

China’s economy kicked off 2018 strongly, but it doesn’t look sustainable
By Nathaniel Taplin

The Forbidden City on a once-again smoggy Beijing day last month. 

China’s economy started 2018 with a roar—or rather a chesty cough.
Steel production surged, up almost 6% in January and February from a year earlier, as did investment in the crucial real-estate sector, which rose at the fastest pace since late 2016. 

Is it game on again in the world’s second-largest economy?
Not so fast. 

The industrial economy bounced back in the opening months of 2018—and so did air pollution in northern China, after a blessedly clean winter. 

But credit growth slowed again, and is now expanding at its weakest pace since mid 2015, when the economy was firmly in the doldrums. 

Leading indicators such as housing sales also weakened.
What does that combination tell you? 

Both the pronounced industrial weakness at the tail end of 2017 and the sharp rebound now are direct the result of the pollution crackdown which—temporarily—cleared up Beijing’s skies in November and December. 

Growth in steel production and housing investment hit at least half-year lows in December as construction ground to a halt: now that the seasonal restrictions are being softened, that pent-up demand is being released.
None of that changes the overall trend of slowing activity that has been evident since mid-2017. 

On a three-month moving average basis, growth in real-estate investment peaked in April, while steel output peaked in August. 

And with infrastructure investment now weakening as policy makers dial back the deficit and fiscal stimulus, there is little prospect of a sharp rebound in overall investment this year.
China’s economy is still getting a strong shot in the arm from global growth, and the property slowdown has, so far, been manageable. 

As long as a trade war doesn’t really derail global growth this year, the chances of a big blowup in China in 2018 remain slim.
That being said, today’s data wasn’t a go signal either—commodities such as copper and oil have been struggling recently for a reason. 

Given the headwinds from a slowly decelerating China, another big leg up for commodity markets in 2018 looks questionable.

Why China’s Environmental Policies Have Gone Wrong

By YANZHONG HUANG

Credit Nicolas Ortega

As my plane was landing in Beijing in mid-December, I realized I had forgotten to bring my N95 respirator mask, and instantly regretted it. 

But that day turned out to be clear, if chilly. 

A Chinese public-health expert later told me that it was no exception: There were far fewer days of smog in 2017 than just a couple of years ago.
Terrific, I thought — until I came to understand the unintended costs of the dramatic improvement in the capital’s air quality.
To reduce the levels of hazardous particles known as PM2.5, the Chinese authorities started a major campaign in 2013 to convert coal-generated heating to gas or electric heating. 

But in the northern province of Hebei, for example, as overzealous local officials put the changes in place, exceeding government targets, demand for the new fuels suddenly surged — creating shortages that left millions without proper heating in freezing temperatures.
This is but one example of the ways in which China’s air-pollution policy may have been a bit too successful. 

The Chinese government deserves credit for its resolve in tackling the problem. 

Yet the rapid concentration of power under Xi Jinping — helped along by the steady purging of officials suspected of corruption — has put apparatchiks and bureaucrats on edge. 

And their rush to please has unexpectedly distorted how environmental policy is made and implemented, sometimes with unwanted consequences.
In 2013, after decades of single-mindedly pursuing economic growth, often to the detriment of the environment and public health, the Chinese government changed course. 

That year, as smog blanketed much of the country, it declared all-out war against air pollution.
The government issued an action plan requiring that the PM2.5 concentration in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area be cut by around 25 percent by the end of 2017. 

Xi endorsed the effort himself, over the years repeating that, “Clear waters and green mountains are as good as mountains of gold and silver.”
In 2016, the Ministry of Environmental Protection set up the Central Environmental Protection Inspection to monitor the local implementation of environmental laws and policies. 

After conducting an investigation in eight regions that summer, 1,140 officials were disciplined — named and shamed, asked to apologize, subjected to administrative sanctions or, in some cases, taken to court.
The pressure remains. 

In early 2017, the Beijing municipal government announced that by year’s end it would slash its coal consumption by 30 percent more than the goal set in 2013. 

The following month, the Ministry of Environmental Protection kicked off an inspection campaign said to be its largest to date.
A report delivered by Xi during the Chinese Communist Party’s last congress in October contained a full chapter dedicated to “Speeding up Reform of the System for Developing an Ecological Civilization and Building a Beautiful China.”
These measures appear to be paying off: By the end of last year, according to government sources, China seemed to have met all the major targets in its 2013 action plan.
Yet the rush to set them and then meet them has had perverse effects.
As it hurriedly devised the national action plan in 2013, the government set targets based on incomplete scientific data, including from health professionals.
Back then, for example, scientists were still debating the causes of smog in China. 

As a result, Li Keqiang acknowledged last year, China’s air-pollution measures have focused on limiting coal burning, car emissions and flying dust. 

They do not tackle other pollutants, like ammonia released by nitrogen fertilizers used in agriculture, which, some scientists have said, may contribute up to 20 percent of the smog in China.
The targets were also determined without the benefit of adequate research about the effects of pollution on human health. 

As of a few months ago, senior health officials were still claiming not to have conclusive clinical studies about the connection between smog and cancer. (Cancer is a leading cause of death in China, and lung cancer is its most common form.) 

Plausible or not, that assertion suggests that measures for controlling air pollution were devised with too little regard for its actual impact on health. 

Less attention still has been paid to the health effects of pollution on the elderly, a complicated but ever-more important issue as the population ages.
No wonder some of the pollution-control targets can seem arbitrary: Why decide that the level of PM10, another dangerous particle, should be brought down to 10 percent nationwide, rather than 9 percent — or even 11 percent? 

And the goals are inadequate: Beijing authorities are priding themselves on bringing the city’s PM2.5 level below 60 micrograms per cubic meter, yet the World Health Organization recommends a maximum annual mean of 10 micrograms per cubic meter.
And then, in order to quickly meet these questionable goals, some local officials with an eye on career advancement — or simply fearful of being sacked — have overshot or been heavy-handed with enforcement.
One of the objectives of the clean-air campaign was to regulate and remove businesses deemed to be san luan wu — scattered, messy and dirty. 

Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan, initially identified 539 such companies. 

But after local leaders learned that they would be sanctioned if inspectors found any additional san luan wu firms, they expanded their lists to include many very small businesses, like auto repair shops or stalls selling steamed buns. 

Within three months, the number exceeded 10,000, putting at risk mom-and-pop operations that actually pollute very little.
The haste to fulfill pollution-control targets may also reveal a greater interest in satisfying the demands of short-term campaigns than in undertaking long-term structural changes. 

Unless the shifts are institutionalized, or at least routinized, they may not be sustained.
Centralized, authoritarian power is sometimes credited with allowing quick policy changes that would be difficult to contemplate in democracies, where checks and balances and political jostling can delay reform. 

But under Xi, political power has become so centralized and so authoritarian that it has perverted the incentive structure that drives environmental policy and its execution. 

In such a system, even good policies can have bad effects.

Chinese curse: May you live in Chinese times

South Koreans Is Suing China For Polluting the Air Over Seoul
TIME

The sun rises over residential and commercial buildings in Seoul, South Korea, on Monday, March 13, 2017. 

China's appalling air quality isn't just sending the Chinese into despair. 

It's also badly affecting people in neighboring countries. 

That, at least, is the contention of a group of disgruntled South Koreans who on Wednesday launched a suit against the governments in Beijing and Seoul.
A total of 88 plaintiffs say they have suffered mental distress and are at risk of respiratory problems because of the fine dust that blows into South Korea from the western deserts of China, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports.
Sandstorms from the Gobi Desert are a seasonal phenomenon in China, regularly affecting residents of the Chinese capital Beijing, where the dust particles mix with smog to send pollution readings off the charts.
The dust also makes it as far as Seoul, where it has sparked protests and the formation of a pressure group called Dust Out. 

However, while many South Koreans like to blame China for bad air, experts say the country's heavy reliance on coal-fired power plants and diesel fuel is a major part of the problem.
The plaintiffs, however, are undeterred. 

According to Yonhap, their petition accused China of failing "to control pollutants at an acceptable level," and had exposed South Koreans to "serious danger." 

They are seeking $2,600 each in compensation.

China Dream

A Chinese student’s commencement speech praising “fresh air” and democracy is riling China’s internet

Yang Shuping's time at the University of Maryland allowed her to enjoy the “fresh air of free speech.”

By Josh Horwitz

Yang Shuping's breath of fresh air. 

Every year in May a handful of commencement speeches will go viral, usually for the speaker’s sense of humor or ability to inspire.

But one graduation speech from this year is going viral in China for a different reason – it’s politically incorrect.
On May 21, Shuping Yang, a graduating senior at the University of Maryland, appeared at her school’s commencement ceremony to give an address. 

In her speech, Yang said that she once had five face masks in China due to the air pollution. 

Upon coming to the United States, she experienced “fresh air.”
People often ask me: Why did you come to the University of Maryland? 

I always answer: Fresh air. 

Five years ago, as I step off the plane from China, and left the terminal at Dallas Airport. 

I was ready to put on one of my five face masks, but when I took my first breaths of American air. 

I put my mask away. 

The air was so sweet and fresh, and utterly luxurious. 

I was surprised by this. 

I grew up in a city in China, where I had to wear a face mask every time I went outside, otherwise, I might get sick. 

However, the moment I inhaled and exhaled outside the airport, I felt free.
Yang went on to discuss how her time at the University of Maryland allowed her to enjoy the “fresh air of free speech.” 

A double-major in theater and psychology, she cited her attendance of a school production of the Anna Deveare-Smith play Twilight, which centers around the race riots in Los Angeles in 1992, as a formative experience.
“I have always had a burning desire to tell these kinds of stories, but I was convinced that only authorities on the narrative, only authorities could define the truth. However, the opportunity to immerse myself in the diverse community at the University of Maryland exposed me to various, many different perspectives on truth,” she said. 

“Democracy and freedom are the fresh air that is worth fighting for,” she added, as her speech came to a close.
Yang’s speech circulated quickly on China’s social media outlets. 

The hashtag “Exchange student says the air in the US is sweet” trended throughout the day on May 22, with many posts linking to a critical piece (link in Chinese, registration required) published by Collegedaily.cn, a Chinese-language blog serving overseas Chinese students. 

Most of the commenters lambasted Yang for her dour portrayal of China, particularly in a public forum overseas.

“The air in our country is bad, [but] this is not the problem. She is flattering Americans by saying our country is flawed. We are Chinese, between one another we can discuss what is wrong with our country, but we still love our homeland,” wrote one commenter.

Yang has since deleted her Facebook profile, along with her personal website. 

She did not respond to Quartz’s inquiries about her speech and its reception. 

The University of Maryland released the following statement:
The University believes that to be an informed global citizen it is critical to hear different viewpoints, to embrace diversity, and demonstrate tolerance when faced with views with which we may disagree. Listening to and respectfully engaging with those whom we disagree are essential skills, both within university walls and beyond.
The University proudly supports Shuping’s right to share her views and her unique perspectives and we commend her on lending her voice on this joyous occasion.
In response to Yang’s remarks, a group of Chinese students at the University of Maryland published a video describing themselves and their hometowns in China, titled “#Proud of China UMD.”
Quartz emailed the University of Maryland branch of the pro-China Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), a multi-chapter university organization for overseas Chinese students, but did not receive a reply.
American universities have welcomed a flood of students from China in recent years. 

Data from the Institute of International Education show 304,000 Chinese students attended university in the US during the 2014-2015 academic year, marking a five-fold increase from a decade prior.
Yang’s speech marks the most recent incident where Chinese students are caught in political crosshairs at overseas universities.
In February, a vandalism incident at Columbia University prompted Chinese students to make a video explaining the meaning of their Chinese names. 

Around the same time, Chinese students and alumni from the University of California, San Diego expressed disapproval of the school’s invitation of the Dalai Lama to speak at commencement. Meanwhile, at Durham University in the UK, the Chinese embassy reportedly called the school’s debate society asking it to reconsider hosting an event with Anastasia Lin, a Canadian-Chinese beauty queen and human rights activist.

Plagues of China

Dust storm chokes Beijing and northern China
BBC News

Beijing's skyline could barely be made out amid the dust on Thursday morning

A dust storm is choking a large swathe of northern China including the capital, Beijing, in yet another air quality crisis to affect the country.
Official air quality readings have soared well above the recommended World Health Organization (WHO) limit.
Authorities are advising residents to avoid outdoor activity and for children and elderly people to remain indoors.
The dust is blowing in from neighbouring Mongolia and China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Officials have advised that children and the elderly stay indoors

Beijing's environmental agency said that as of 11:00 local time (03:00 GMT), the PM2.5 reading -- which measures pollution in the form of small breathable particles -- was 500 micrograms per cubic metre.
The WHO says the maximum safe level should be 25 micrograms per cubic metre.
Authorities said Beijing would be affected until Thursday evening and visibility would be noticeably low throughout the day. 

Dozens of flights have been delayed or cancelled.

Officials say visibility in Beijing will drop noticeably on Thursday

State media quoted city officials as saying that the dust storm began moving towards Beijing in the late afternoon on Wednesday, and enveloped the city overnight.
The dust storm has also affected, to varying degrees, a vast swathe of northern China stretching from the far west province of Xinjiang to eastern Heilongjiang, with Inner Mongolia experiencing particularly bad conditions.

Beijing environmental authorities issued an advisory saying residents should avoid outdoor activity

Chinese people have, as usual, not hesitated to take to social media to vent their frustration.
"Sandstorm is hitting Beijing. I feel closer to lung cancer," said one commenter on microblogging network Sina Weibo.
Others made comparisons to the capital's infamous smog problem.
"I've got used to smog, time to try something new. If I have to choose one to live in, between sandstorm and smog, I prefer the former," said another Weibo commenter.
China has seen particularly intense air pollution in recent years, especially in winter as many of its northern cities still largely rely on burning coal for heating.
But it is also increasingly affected by dust storms, as its cities expand towards nearby deserts which in turn have been spreading due to climate change.

There were some tour groups at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Thursday despite the bad air quality

Authorities have been attempting to halt this progress by planting more trees, besides other measures to cut pollution such as reforming the coal industry and shutting factories.
Beijing issued its first red alert, the highest level in air pollution alerts, in 2015, and has done so a few more times since.

Rogue Nation

Largest Polluter in the World Tries to Reduce Air Pollution by Controlling the News Related to Smog
By Danny Ovy

China Dream

Beijing has today an improved system of collecting data that are available to the public, but at the same time the authorities are very concerned about the spread of unauthorized data produced by popular mobile apps and people that are using handheld detectors to check the level of air pollution in the air that they breathe.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection in China (MEP), tries to create a modern regulatory system that is based on independent monitoring of the data, but the system could affect the ruling role of the Communist Party that wants to maintain social stability in the country.
The Chinese government is worried that the unauthorized sources of information on pollution levels could undermine the official data that are manipulated to show that the environment and the air quality is improving.
Origins Technology is the producer of the Laser Egg, which is a handheld pollution monitor sold in Beijing’s Apple store, and through the voice of its CEO, Liam Bates, says that the authorities are not against the people who are monitoring the quality of the air that they breathe, but are against the fact of making these data public.

Environmental Censorship on Air Pollution
So, we are talking about censorship here, the Chinese authorities don’t agree with the fact that the public is monitoring the quality of the air because these kinds of alternative data show that the official data are not accurate.
Actually, the Chinese government wants to hide the fact that they are not truly engaged in the fight against pollution because the developing economy requires huge amounts of cheap energy that can produce only by burning coal.
To block the unauthorized data, the authorities say that is illegal to publish data from non-official sources.
So, if you have a handheld monitor that can measure the level of pollution in your area, you can’t make public the data shown by your device because the tool used is not official. 

This is actually a censorship on the right to free expression, and is specific to the communist countries.
To understand the level of censorship in China, a citizen was recently detained by police for five days in Chengdu (southwest China) after posting on his Weibo microblog the announcement that “China is facing the heaviest smog in its 2,000-year history”. 

The authorities have called his action as “rumor mongering” made by individuals.
Regulators have named an air pollution monitoring app that spread rumors related to the fact that in December 2016, Chengdu was the third most polluted city in the world.
In reality, China tries to develop its economy up to the level of the western countries because only this way they can become a superpower in the world.
Sadly, their lust for world dominance affects the health of their citizens, and the entire world because the wind is moving the smog toward the neighboring countries.

Exporting airpocalypse: how China's dirty air becomes Hong Kong's problem

Last month there were 300,000 doctor’s visits in Hong Kong linked to smog wafting over from mainland China. But in a busy town obsessed with money, will it take a direct economic hit to wake people to the danger?

By Benjamin Haas in Hong Kong

Much of Hong Kong’s pollution comes across from mainland China.

At the age of three, Margaux Giraudon developed something akin to a smoker’s cough. 

Thereafter, she became all too familiar with the inside of her doctor’s office in Hong Kong.
For years, her father Nicolas Giraudon was told the same thing by doctors: “Your daughter is sensitive to changes in the weather.” 

Eventually she grew so ill that she was hooked up to breathing machines in the hospital for three days, inhaling medicine delivered in a mist. 

At that point, Giraudon decided it was time for the family to return to his native France.
“She was scared – she didn’t know what was going on, and she saw the look on our faces,” Giraudon recalls. 

“Her mother and I were completely shocked. When you have children, you want the best for them; you want to protect them as much as possible.”
For Giraudon, those three days transformed Hong Kong from an international city bustling with excitement and opportunity into a death trap that was slowly poisoning his family. 

Born on the island, Margaux had developed asthmatic bronchitis, which caused her lung capacity to fall by nearly a third compared to other children her age.
While Hong Kong’s air pollution rarely commands the attention of the toxic cloud that frequently covers northern China, dubbed the “airpocalypse”, the air is anything but clean here. 

Levels of cancer-causing pollutants have exceeded World Health Organization standards for over 15 years, rising to more than five times acceptable levels at its peak.
As far back as 2013, the government called air pollution the “greatest daily health risk to the people of Hong Kong”. 

Despite awareness of the dangers, this notoriously pro-business city has moved at a glacial pace in tackling the problem, commissioning study after study but taking little concrete action.
The fast-paced business world is what originally brought Giraudon to Hong Kong in 2009. 

In the six years before his daughter became sick, he didn’t experience any noticeable effects from air pollution. 

The 42-year-old media executive went hiking in the mountains around the city and jogged all over his new home, realising a lifelong dream of working in Asia. 

He didn’t buy air purifiers, dismissing the costly machines as a marketing trick.

Margaux Giraudon developed asthmatic bronchitis while living in Hong Kong. Photograph: Nicolas Giraudon

After his daughter’s hospital stay, however, Giraudon transformed completely. 

He bought a device to measure air pollution and became obsessed. 

Every room in his house was fitted with an expensive air purifier, and he checked the air quality constantly.
“My flat in Hong Kong felt like living in a spaceship,” he says. 

“I was measuring the level of pollution 24 hours a day, measuring humidity to combat mould, to make sure everything was within acceptable levels.”
Giraudon would hear his neighbour’s children coughing at night, and knew they didn’t have air filters.
“I became the guy nobody invited for dinner,” he recalls with a sigh. 

“Especially the newcomers, who were all really excited to arrive in Hong Kong – and then I would come with my readings and warnings. People didn’t want to hear about it.”
Giraudon began taking his testing equipment to his daughter’s school and was shocked to discover the air was terrible. 

But he also found another group of people who did not want to hear about the problem: school officials. 

He launched a campaign to clean the air there, and was met with resistance at every turn.
The city is notorious for capitalism run amok, and the authorities have long preferred the status quo or very slow change – a perpetual complaint among activists.
In a sign that ignorance about the health effects of pollution extends to the very top, one former chief executive famously said: “Life expectancy [in Hong Kong] is the highest on earth, higher than that in Japan these days. It must be our air.” 

The year he made that statement, pollution levels were more than four times WHO recommendations.

Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world.

The source of the smog
While equipping every room of a school or home with filters can clean the air, it’s only a plaster over the larger problem: tackling pollution at the source.
Emissions from cars and container ships are some of the largest contributors to Hong Kong’s smog. Old diesel vehicles still number in the tens of thousands, and ships sailing into the city’s port, one of the busiest in the world, are allowed to burn high sulphur fuel right up until they dock. 

Power plants, meanwhile, rely almost entirely on fossil fuel, with coal supplying 52% of the city’s energy.
Much of Hong Kong’s pollution, however, wafts across the border from China. 

About 70% of particulate matter comes from the mainland, according to a study commissioned by the city’s Environmental Protection Department. 

In winter, when the wind direction tends to blow more pollutants towards Hong Kong, as much as 77% of dust in the air comes from China.
Hong Kong has signed a series of agreements with Guangdong province directly to the north – but they are unenforceable, stymying efforts by the local government and activists to have a meaningful impact. 

In the meantime, the health impact on Hong Kong’s population is severe.
There were more than 1,600 premature deaths last year because of air pollution, according to Hong Kong University’s school of public health. 

In the first month of 2017 researchers estimate there were more than 300,000 doctor’s visits linked to smog.
A landmark study last year found that air pollution increased the risk of dying from any type of cancer by 22% in Hong Kong. 

An increase of just 10 micrograms of PM2.5 – a tiny airborne particulate linked to cancer and heart disease – heightened the risk of dying of breast cancer by 80%.

A clean, blue-skied billboard against the city’s polluted skyline. 

With a government that is scarcely accountable to Hong Kong residents, environmental campaigners are fighting an uphill battle to contain even local sources of pollution. 

The city’s leader, known as the chief executive, is elected by a 1,200-strong committee made up of elites, where China has considerable sway over the votes. 

Only half the seats in the legislature are directly elected, with the remaining lawmakers returned by professional organisations that overwhelmingly support Beijing.
Tanya Chan, chairman of the environmental affairs panel in the city’s legislature, recalls constituents clamouring for the government to clean up the air, fearing for the health of their children. 

“The government can try harder and they should push harder,” she says. 

“We need to be improving fuel standards and expanding the use of electric vehicles.”
Chan is in favour of introducing congestion pricing to some of the city’s most clogged districts, but lawmakers are hamstrung by a political system where all power related to government spending or levies requires approval from the chief executive.
“He is only accountable to a small election committee, where most come from business sectors,” Chan says. “We have no choice but to breathe this air.”
The city’s air quality standards (government targets for clean air) remained unchanged for 27 years before eventually being updated in 2014. 

But they still fall short of WHO guidelines.
“We need to improve our air quality standard to catch up with international standards,” Chan adds. “That process has been a bit slow and I hope the government will do more, especially for the PM2.5s.”
The Environmental Bureau only began publicising Hong Kong’s PM2.5 figures in 2012, nearly seven years after it began monitoring the harmful pollutant, and only after Beijing began publishing the same information.
But locals are increasingly concerned, and hungry for information.

Hong Kong’s air pollution caused more than 1,600 premature deaths last year.

The activists
On a recent evening, tucked away on the second floor of a sleepy cafe, about two dozen people gather to receive a crash course in Hong Kong’s pollution situation. 

The mostly young crowd are a mix of office workers, salesmen and artists, all united by their previous ignorance of the dangers in the air and their anger at the officials they say kept them in the dark.
Leading the meeting is Patrick Fung, chief executive of the Hong Kong Clean Air Network. 

The 31-year-old has become the face of the fight for better air quality in the city, and while he’s often dressed in tailored shirts and trousers to ensure his message is taken seriously, his shoulder-length hair, goatee and glasses evoke an image of environmental activists from years past.
In many ways the former advertising executive lives by the phrase: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity,” taking any opportunity to counter the narrative that dirty air is a fact of life.
“I’m just advertising something else now: cleaner air,” Fung says. 

“It’s the most challenging product to sell: everyone wants it but it’s not just something you buy, some sacrifices need to be made.”
On the most basic level, Fung and his fellow campaigners want the government to update its air quality targets. 

The Hong Kong government’s targets for annual air pollution are three and a half times higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization.
But beyond that are a host of problems unique to Hong Kong: the city is one of the most densely populated places in the world, with its most crowded district nearly four times more packed than Islington, London’s densest borough. 

Narrow streets surrounded by high-rises have created “street canyons”, which can trap pollutants between buildings.
Fung’s group advocates for large swaths of the city’s main thoroughfares to be turned over to pedestrians, similar to New York’s Times Square or plans for Oxford Street in London. 

Cindy Wong listens to Fung’s speech with rapt attention, bombarded with information she had never heard before.
“People in Hong Kong spend all their time worrying: prices are expensive, rent is high, salaries are low, so no one has time to care about pollution,” she says after the meeting. 

“The government should have a strict policy to control pollution; the government should lead and people will follow.”

Patrick Fung: ‘[Clean air] should be a basic right.’ 

“The air seems much better in foreign countries, in Europe,” Wong adds. 

Although she’s never been, she often watched with envy as travel programs highlighted tree-lined streets and plentiful gardens in cities abroad.
“A lot of Hong Kongers know about the poor air quality, but they feel powerless,” Fung says. 

“It’s an issue of justice – this should be a basic right.”
After five years heading the environmental NGO, he says he can tell the air quality by his nose alone. “Everyone in this office can tell just by the smell of the air.”

Ignoring the problem
The vast majority of Hong Kong people don’t have air purifiers, and those that do tend to be wealthier and better educated, according to Peter Brar, manager at air quality testing company Renaud Air, which also sells filters. 

He estimates about half of all expats have at least one air filter in their homes.
“A lot of the local people who’ve never had an opportunity to live abroad don’t know any better,” Brar says. 

“They think going to the doctor and getting sick three times a year is normal; it’s not normal.”
Although many in Hong Kong may not be aware of the hazards of dirty air, the government has over a decade of data illustrating the problem – but it has been slow to act.
“A lot of the bureaucrats don’t want to be blamed for something,” Brar says. 

“They just try to keep ignoring it and ignoring it as long as possible – and saving money, saving money until they have to do something.
“Hong Kong is a very pro-business environment,” he adds. 

“The government does know the air quality is really bad – but they try to hide the problem.”
In a town obsessed with money, the fact that air pollution is estimated to have caused HK$20.bn (£2.2bn) worth of economic losses in 2016 may change more minds.
Brar points to a system where buildings in Hong Kong can apply for a clean air certificate from the government – but the process only tests for PM10, particulate matter akin to dust or pollen, entirely ignoring the smaller, more harmful PM2.5.
He says companies that sell air purifiers frequently meet resistance from schools and business, with executives either in denial or unwilling to spend the money required to provide clean air.
When Giraudon wanted to present a professional report at his daughter’s school, Brar offered to test the air quality for free, but was also rebuffed by school officials. 

Other schools have been more receptive – particularly international schools that have more money compared to government-run institutions.
Giraudon, however, has left behind his battle for classroom purifiers in favour of a suburb of Annecy, a small French city that has the reputation of having the cleanest lake in Europe.
Having arrived last December, Giraudon reports that his daughter Margaux already seems to be doing better. 

Frequently sick in Hong Kong, she has yet to fall ill, is coughing less and no longer needs to carry an inhaler.
After eight years of living in Hong Kong, Giraudon admits he misses the excitement, opportunities and low taxes, which max out at 15% rather than France’s 45%.
“But I prefer to pay tax than to kill my children,” he says.

Plagues of China

Chinese People Are Buying All Kinds of Desperate Remedies to Protect Themselves From Smog
By Charlie Campbell / Beijing

Pedestrians wearing masks walk on a road that is blanketed by heavy smog on Jan. 5, 2017, in Jinan, Shandong province, China.

Following a welcome burst of blue skies over Lunar New Year, chronic smog returned to northern China this week, prompting the wearing of face masks and the switching on of air purifiers as airborne particle levels soared to 10 times WHO safe levels.
The government said it was making efforts to deal with the choking haze, from slashing coal consumption in the capital Beijing by 30%, and the threat of legal action against the worst offending local authorities, to proposed cutbacks to the coal and steel industries. (Though Greenpeace claims the latter actually grew in capacity last year.)
But the enduring smog is good news for one section of society: peddlers of "antipollution" products. 

The range of prophylactics has grown enormously over the last few years, and ranges from the sensible — such as ever more sophisticated face masks and air purifiers — to the highly dubious, such as "antismog" herbal teas.
Boasting ingredients such as “polygonatum, kumquat, lily, red dates, chrysanthemum and rock candy,” the latter are claimed by manufacturers to "alleviate the harm to the human body of long-term inhalation of air pollution.” 

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners are unimpressed, though; Liu Quanqing, president of the Beijing Hospital of TCM, told China’s state media last month that such concoctions were "unreliable" and "may cause health problems if taken for a long time."

Passengers walk in the smog at Zhengzhou East Railway Station on Jan. 9, 2017, in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China.

But it’s not just teas that have dubious efficacy. 

China’s online trading platform Taobao — the nation’s gargantuan equivalent of eBay and Amazon — is chock-full with bizarre antismog products. 

There are antismog windows and antismog trees. 

For $5,000 you can buy a truck-mounted antismog water cannon that drenches particles from the air. 

Conversely, there is also antismog incense, for those who literally want to fight fumes with fumes.
For skeptics, face masks and air purifiers remain the preferred choices, and China has made major strides with both.
There are masks with built-in fans, masks just for the nose, and even couples’ masks especially for Valentine's Day. 

For fashionistas, Beijing designer Wang Zhijun turns high-end sneakers into face masks; one was crafted from a pair of Kanye West–designed, limited edition Adidas Yeezy Boosts that were recently sold online for $10,000.
Air purifiers, meanwhile, are becoming cheaper and more efficient. 

Chinese tech firm Xiaomi leads the way with its Mi Air Purifier Pro, boasting a dual-fan, dual-motor system with "high-precision laser sensor."
“Air purifiers are made not just for smog,” company spokesman Li Zhuoqi tells TIME. 

“In fact, air purifiers also sell well in countries with generally good air quality as they can filter pollen, dust, airborne germs and eliminate odors.”
Xiaomi should know what it’s talking about. 

Late last month, global vice president Hugo Barra quit the Beijing-based firm to move back to California, saying that “the last few years of living in such a singular environment have taken a huge toll on my life and started affecting my health.”

Like a China dream

Nation of Cheaters

Smog and mirrors: China’s steel capacity cuts were fake, report says.
By Simon Denyer

Smoke billows from a large steel plant 6 in Inner Mongolia, China. 

When it comes to steel, China is faking it.
Faced with global condemnation for flooding world markets with cheap steel, China announced last year it had implemented ambitious cuts in steel capacity.
But a new report by Greenpeace East Asia and Chinese consultancy Custeel says that number was largely smoke and mirrors. 

Plants China says it closed down were already idle, while production was restarted elsewhere and brand new plants opened.
In fact, China’s steel industry actually saw a net increase in operating capacity equivalent to twice Britain’s total capacity, the report concludes.
That’s bad news for the air in Beijing, but it could also inflame China’s trade relations with the United States and the European Union, which have repeatedly accused China of dumping cheap steel abroad and damaging their own steel industries.
Tens of thousands of European steelworkers demonstrated last year in Brussels and in Germany against cheap Chinese steel.
“Impressive as they seem, China’s current steel capacity reduction targets won’t suffice to limit oversupply, as local governments maneuver to shield zombie steel mills and minimize the impact of the policies,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, Greenpeace global coal campaigner.
“Global markets are awash with steel and the people of northern China continue to choke on the industry’s major byproduct, smog. Increasing steel capacity makes neither economic nor environmental sense.”
China, which accounts for half the world's steel production, has a total capacity of 1.1 billion metric tons (1.2 billion U.S. tons): It has announced plans to eliminate 100-150 million metric tons (110-165 million U.S. tons) of annual production over the next five years, but cutting capacity has so far done little to rein in output and exports.
Last year, it said it had far exceeded its initial target to cut capacity by 45 million metric tons (50 million U.S. tons), recording cuts of around 85 million metric tons (94 million U.S. tons).
But the report says that 73 percent of the announced cuts in capacity were already idle — in other words the plants were not operating. 

Only 23 million metric tons (25 million U.S. tons) of cut capacity involved shutting down production plants that were operating.
At the same time, some 54 million metric tons (59.5 million U.S. tons) of capacity were restarted, and 12 million metric tons (13 million U.S. tons) of new operating capacity came online.
That left China showing a net increase in operating capacity of 36.5 million metric tons (40 million U.S. tons) last year, a figure that is consistent with a 3 percent increase in steel production in the second half of last year.
It is also consistent with evidence of a deterioration in the air quality in Beijing in the second half of last year — the steel industry is a heavy consumer of coal and contributor to air pollution, and most of the restarted capacity came in the industrial provinces near the capital, Shanxi, Hebei and Tianjin.
Here's a link to an interactive map showing the increases in steel production around China in more detail.
“Cutting already idle capacity is not enough to win the battle to tame the steel industry and the central government’s much-touted ‘war on air pollution,’” Myllyvirta said.

Sources of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter.

With the economy slowing, national and provincial leaders have been under pressure to bolster employment and maintain social stability. 

A new round of debt-fueled spending on infrastructure, combined with measures by local leaders to protect local industries and continued bank lending to so-called zombie companies, pushed up steel prices and output.
The Obama administration imposed heavy anti-dumping duties on certain types of Chinese steel and aluminum, and experts say the Trump administration could take even stronger measures, with the president campaigning on a promise to rebuild the country with American steel — even though he was reported to have used Chinese steel for his own construction projects.
At his nomination hearing to become commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, who has a background in the U.S. steel industry, also said the United States need to look more closely at anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum.
Finally, this chart shows how Beijing's air quality (the red line) deteriorated in the second half of last year as steel, iron and coke production rebounded.

According to a document seen by Reuters news agency, the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection does have a plan to further cut steel and aluminum output as well as banning coal from some ports to combat the growing smog problem. 

The report published Monday includes cutting steel capacity in half across five regions during the winter. 

But the policy is still in the planning stages, and it is far from clear if it will be implemented.

China Dream

New Year goes dark in China
By Catherine Hardy

The Beijing city government has told officials not to set off fireworks or firecrackers to welcome the Lunar New Year.
The Chinese New Year holiday begins on New Year’s Eve on Friday.
It is normally marked by riotous pyrotechnic displays. 

They are thought to bring good luck and ward off evil spirits.

What has the government said?
The government has tried to limit the use of fireworks in recent years.
The government said officials must “take the lead by not setting off fireworks or firecrackers” in a statement late on Thursday.
“Pro-actively guide family members and friends not to let off or to limit the letting off of fireworks and firecrackers, improve air quality together and get into the action of ensuring blue skies for the capital,” the statement ended.
Other measures
The government has already limited firework sales in Beijing.
Only 511 firework stalls have been approved this year, compared to 719 last year.
None of them are in central Beijing, according to reports.

New Year in China
This year, the Lunar New Year marks the start of the year of the rooster.
It is the largest annual mass migration on Earth. 

Hundreds of mlllions of workers pack trains, buses, aircraft and boats to spend the festival with their families.
For many Chinese people, it is their only holiday of the year.

Are the restrictions only in Beijing?
No.
Other parts of the country are also cracking down.
Central Henan province has banned their use in all cities and towns.
Hebei’s Baoding city is threatening to detain anyone setting off fireworks outside the four days of celebrations.

Why is pollution a problem in China?
Efforts to clean up the skies in China’s northern industrial heartland, which includes Beijing, are being thwarted by coal-burning industry and indoor heating.
Both increase during the winter months, especially in the bitterly-cold north.

China dream: Beijing, the city where you can't escape smog

China's capital is notorious for its chronic pollution. Even indoors it's a struggle to find clean air.
By John Sudworth.

A normal day in Beijing
Having already taped most of my windows shut, I have now started on the air conditioning vents. 

The aim is simple -- to close off every access point through which the toxic outside air leaks into our Beijing home.
Even our double-glazing doesn't keep out the smog. 

The most dangerous constituent, particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter -- or PM2.5 as it's known -- finds a way through the tiniest of gaps where the windows close.
So the only solution there is duct tape.
It's like a re-enactment of a 1970s government information film on surviving a nuclear holocaust. 

Only it's not radiation we're trying to keep at bay, but the fallout from fossil fuels.
The most useful device in our armoury is our PM2.5 monitor. 

We have two, one upstairs and one downstairs, which we glance at frequently, and it was their arrival that prompted the frenzy of taping and draught-excluding that continues to this day.
When I first arrived in China, five years ago, there was no way of monitoring the quality of air in our home. 

Like everyone else, we left it to blind faith that our air purifiers were doing the trick. It now transpires they weren't. 

Even now on highly polluted days, we struggle to get our PM2.5 count much below 25 micrograms per cubic meter, the World Health Organization's maximum standard for safe air.
And that's with multiple purifiers running at full tilt, large box-like machines that sit in the corner of every room -- two in some -- the combined noise output of which is akin to living in the engine room of an aircraft carrier.

Shoppers look at air purifiers in Beijing
China's air pollution problem is now so bad that its effects are measured in more than a million premature deaths a year and markedly reduced life expectancy -- an average of more than five years or so -- in the worst-affected regions.
Over the past few weeks, a period of particularly acute and prolonged air pollution, the average air quality in Beijing has been well above 200 micrograms of PM2.5 particles per cubic metre -- many times the maximum safe limit.
During the worst of it, it's been like living under house arrest, our children confined to the small, deafening but breathable indoor space of our home for days on end.
And across China, the smog becomes a dominant topic on social media, with the population tracking the foulness of the air via mobile phone apps.
One group of Beijing mothers, armed with their own PM2.5 counters, have even been roaming the city in search of shopping malls or cafes with filtered air -- and then sharing their discoveries online.
Of course, humanity's dependence on oil and coal long predate China's economic rise. 

But China offers a vision of environmental degradation far in excess of the pea-souper fogs of 1950s London or Manchester.
For much of the past month the cloud of toxic air hanging over this country has extended for thousands of miles, a giant, continent-sized cocktail of soot from coal fired power stations and car exhausts, smothering the lives and filling the lungs of hundreds of millions of people.
While growing awareness means that more of them are now taking action to protect their health, many others are either not fully informed about the danger or don't have the means to do much about it.
A set of new filters for a single air purifier can cost £100 ($120) or more and needs changing every six months or so.
It is, of course, not a problem only of China's making. 

The smartphones, computers, TV screens, jeans and shoes that have been pouring out of its factories over the past few decades are cheap, in part at least, precisely because they're made without environmental safeguards.
The interests of the rich world and an unaccountable Chinese Communist elite have neatly dovetailed. 

The West gets its cheap consumer desirables and China gets rich without the inconvenience of the independent scrutiny, regulation or democratic oversight of other markets.
The true cost is measured by the numbers on my pollution monitors, and it is one being borne disproportionately by ordinary Chinese people.
Following a crackdown on a rare protest against pollution in the central city of Chengdu recently, one blogger dared to speak out in favour of the protesters. 

The police, he suggested, should bear in mind that the elites, whose interests they protect, have sent their families to breathe clean air overseas.
He was promptly detained.

Poetoxic Beijing

China Dream: Death By Smog

Read The Smog-Inspired Poem That China Can't Stop Talking About
By EMILY FENG

A smog alert day in Dalian, China. The photo was taken on December 19.

A poem written by a Chinese surgeon lamenting the medical effects of smog, called "I Long to Be King," is going viral on Chinese social media.
Told from the perspective of lung cancer, the poem takes an apocalyptic note:

Happiness after sorrow, rainbow after rain.

I faced surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy,

But continued to chase my dream,

Some would have given up, but I will be the king.

An English version of the poem (for full text, see below) ran in the October issue of CHEST Journal, a publication of the American College of Chest Physicians.
Published in Chinese this month, the poem is now striking a chord on Chinese social media.
"I hope the government can look at this problem more and then immediately resolve it, otherwise everyone will move. Or we will die of cancer. Is this the final outcome we face?" asked one commenter on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform.
"I'm infuriated... For the sake of GDP, can we simply ignore the health of our country's people?" wrote another.
Not all commenters appreciated the poem though.
"Europe and the U.S. always most enjoy when Chinese people write about their own underside. The more coarse, the more backward, the higher the chance it wins attention," complained one.
The author of "I Long to Be King" is Dr. Zhao Xiaogang, deputy chief of thoracic surgery at Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital of Tongji University.
Since the poem has taken off, he has been outspoken in the detrimental health effects of air pollution.
"The intense rise in lung cancer ... is intimately related to smog," Dr. Zhao told state media.
In and around Beijing and Hebei province in China's northeast last week, the concentration of air pollutant particles was more than 20 times higher than the level deemed safe by the World Health Organization.
According to the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, the city saw 168 days of "polluted" air in 2016.
Cancer is the leading cause of death in China, claiming 2.8 million lives in 2015.
Lung cancer is the country's leading form of cancer.

The Chinese government, well aware of the simmering discontent, has resolved to clean up the country's smog problem.
Ambitious goals have been set to substantially reign in air pollution by 2020.
And over the past year authorities have fined corporate polluters millions, going as far as detaining several hundred of them.
Yet on Chinese message boards, some commenters don't think the pollution will end any time soon.
"The Hebei countryside is all smog. It is terrible," wrote one commenter.
"It is another way of showing how useless the government is."
Here's the full text of I Long To Be King:

I am ground glass opacity (GGO) in the lung,

A vague figure shrouded in mystery and strangeness,

Like looking at the moon through clouds,

Like seeing beautiful flowers in the fog.

I long to be king,

With my fellows swimming in every vessel.

My people crawl in your organs and body,

Holding the rights for life or death, I tremble with excitement.

When young you called me "atypical adenomatous hyperplasia",

Then when I had matured, you declared me "adenocarcinoma in situ",

When fully developed, your fearful denomination: "invasive adenocarcinoma".

You forgot my strenuous journey to become the king.

From tiny to strong,

From humble to arrogant.

None cared when I was young,

But all fear me we when full grown.

I've been nourished on the delicious mist and haze,

That sweetly warmed my heart,

Always loving when you were heavy drunk and smoking,

Creating me a cozy home.

When I was less than eight millimeters, I was so fragile,

Waiting for a chance to grow up.

Now, more than eight millimeters, I am more mature,

And considered worthy of notice.

My continuous growth gives me a chance to be king,

As I break through layers of obstacles,

Spanning the mountains and waters.

My fellows march to every corner and occupy every region.

My quest to become king was full of obstacles,

I was cut until almost dead in childhood,

Burned once I'd matured,

And poisoned when older.

Happiness after sorrow, rainbow after rain.

I faced surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy,

But continued to chase my dream,

Some would have given up, but I will be the king.

I long to be king, with fellows and subordinates,

I long to be king, to have people's fear and respect

I long to be king, to dominate my domain,

I long to be king, to direct your fate.

The Chinese Curse

China’s neighbors are getting a whiff of its terrible pollution

Echo Huang

Just another hazy night in Tianjin.

Turns out China isn’t the only country choking on its smog.
In the first week of 2017, more than half of Chinese cities suffered from air pollution, and 31 of them went on red alert (link in Chinese), which requires measures like limiting car usage and closing factories. 

Now China’s neighbors are sounding their own alarms about the air.
On Jan, 3, South Korea issued a warning about “severe fine dust levels,” and Seoul warned of “ultrafine” particles for the first time since November 2015. 

The country’s environmental research institute advised people to stay indoors, and local newspaper Chosun reported that “a thick blanket of toxic haze from China” descended on most of Korea around New Year’s Day.
Taiwan— just dozens of nautical miles from China’s southeastern Fujian Province—also issued warnings against outdoor activities, as air quality index (AQI) in southern Taiwan reached code-red levels, according to the region’s Central News Agency.
The pollution seems to have taken advantages of wind and atmospheric circulation, according to real-time data from NASA and earth nullschool. 

A screenshot of wind, weather, ocean, and pollution conditions from Jan. 2 places South Korea and Taiwan in the spreading circles of Beijing’s air pollutants.
The pink and white hovering above China reflects high levels of aerosol thickness. 

An aerosol particle contained in the air is usually made of dust, smoke, soot, and clouds, so higher thickness means more smog.More white and pink means more hazardous particles.
Pollution in northern China is usually at its worst in winter, as coal is burned for heat. 

Cities further south are often caught in polluted winds—this week, many in China’s southern Pearl River Delta recorded an Air Quality Index of 300, deemed hazardous. 

But there was one lucky locale: Hong Kong, which escaped the smog thanks to its easterly wind.

China Dream: millions start new year shrouded by health alerts and travel chaos

On the first day of 2017 in Beijing pollution climbed as high as 24 times the level recommended by the World Health Organization

By Benjamin Haas in Hong Kong

Two men play Chinese chess beside a lake on a heavily polluted day in Beijing on 1 January. 
Millions in China rang in the New Year shrouded in a thick blanket of toxic smog, causing road closures and flight cancellations as 24 cities issued alerts that will last through much of the week.
On the first day of 2017 in Beijing, concentrations of tiny particles that penetrate deep into the lungs climbed as high as 24 times levels recommended by the World Health Organization. 

More than 100 flights were cancelled and all intercity buses were halted at the capital’s airport.

In the neighbouring port city of Tianjin, more than 300 flights were cancelled while the weather forecast warned thick smog will persist until 5 January. 

All of the city’s highways were also shut as low visibility made driving hazardous, effectively trapping residents.
Across northern China 24 cities issued red alerts on Friday and Saturday, while orange alerts persisted in 21 cities through the New Year holiday. 

A red alert is the highest level of a four-tier warning system introduced as part of China’s high-profile war on pollution.
Decades of economic development have made acrid air a common occurrence in nearly all major Chinese cities, with government-owned coal burning power stations and heating plants and steel manufacturing concentrated in northern provinces the main source of pollution.

Beautiful China: Landmark buildings are seen through smog on 1 January in Beijing.

Smog worsens in the winter as coal burning spikes to provide heat for millions of people. 

China declared a “war on pollution” in 2014, but has struggled to deliver the sweeping change many had hoped to see and government inspections routinely find pollutions flouting the law.
“Why didn’t those polluting industries take a rest for the holiday,” one commenter mused on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo.
“New Year’s morning in Beijing, I thought I was blind,” said another, attaching a photo of a window completely darkened with grey haze.
Similar posts appeared on Twitter.

China’s middle class is increasingly less tolerant of the deadly air, and in December tens of thousands of “smog refugees” decamped to clearer skies. 

Top destinations included Australia, Indonesia, Japan and the Maldives.
That bout of smog saw 460 million people, a population greater than North America, breathing toxic air, according to Greenpeace.
As pollution covered swaths of the country on New Year’s Eve, China announced plans to increase coal output to 3.9 billion tonnes by 2020.
A study earlier this year found acrid air is linked to at least one million deaths a year, and contributed to a third of all fatalities in major cities, on par with smoking. 

Another research paper said the smog had shortened life expectancies by five and a half years in parts of China.