A miasma of hazardous haze yesterday blanketed Beijing and the rest of northern China for a fifth day, while Beijing lifted its highest pollution warning on expectation the smog would ease.
The smog continued to rise, though a new forecast said it would start to improve later in the day. By 10am, the concentration of PM2.5 — fine particles measuring less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter — was 327 micrograms per cubic meter in Tiananmen Square. The overall air quality index was 404, indicating “severe” pollution.
The canceling of the “red alert” meant traffic restrictions were lifted and schools reopened, despite the lingering smog. That highlighted the challenge government officials face in both forecasting the pollution — the red alert is imposed when the air quality index is forecast to rise higher than 200 for three days — and cleaning it up without disrupting the lives of Beijing’s 20 million residents too severely.
Photo: Reuters
The red alert is to be lifted when the daily air quality index drops lower then the “heavy” pollution level, Greenpeace East Asia climate and energy campaigner Dong Liansai (董連賽) said, adding that the alert “is different from what the public feels every hour and this might need to be improved.”
Air quality is to improve from north to south between yesterday evening and Friday, the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a statement on Monday.
Other cities surrounding Beijing in northern China issued red alerts on Tuesday as the capital lifted its own warning. Tianjin’s red alert, which goes into effect when the air quality index rises higher than 500, was to stay in effect until 6am this morning. Other cities, including Baoding, Handan and Xingtai, were also under a red alert.
“The warning system of pollution is just a temporary way to reduce smog,” Dong said, adding that the nation should curb coal use — the biggest cause of smog — to tackle the issue in the long run.
Shanghai also warned residents to stay indoors because of the smog yesterday. The air in China’s financial center was described as “heavily polluted,” the second-worst on a six-grade scale, as of 10am, the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center said on its Web site.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese