China's smoggiest city closed schools Wednesday as much of the country suffered its sixth day under an oppressive haze, sparking public anger about the slow response to the threat to children's health.
Since Friday a choking miasma has covered a large swathe of northeastern China, leaving more than 460 million gasping for breath.
Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province, was one of more than 20 cities which went on red alert Friday evening, triggering an emergency plan to reduce pollution by shutting polluting factories and taking cars off the road, among other measures.
Nowhere has been hit as hard as Shijiazhuang, which has seen a huge rise in pollution.
But the city's education department waited until Tuesday evening to announce it was closing elementary schools and kindergartens, following similar moves in nearby Beijing and Tianjin.
The announcement said middle and high schools could close on a voluntary basis.
The statement on the education department's official social media account provoked anger.
Hmm, classmates in Beijing assured us air pollution in China came from Siberia.
Also at Channel NewsAsia: Chinese cities choked by dangerous smog for fifth day; factories, schools closed
Related Stories
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-parliament-steel-coal-idUSKBN16C00H
China will cut steel capacity by 50 million tonnes and coal output by more than 150 million tonnes this year, its top economic planner said on Sunday as the world's No. 2 economy deepens efforts to tackle pollution and curb excess supply. In a work report at the opening of the annual meeting of parliament, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said it would shut or stop construction of coal-fired power plants with capacity of more than 50 million kilowatts.
The pledges are part of Beijing's years-long push to reduce the share of coal in its energy mix to cut pollution that has choked northern cities and to meet climate-change goals while streamlining unwieldy and over-supplied smoke-stack industries such as steel. Speaking at the opening of parliament on Sunday, Premier Li Keqiang reiterated the government's plan to ramp up monitoring of heavy industry and crack down on companies and officials that violate air quality rules. "Officials who do a poor job in enforcing the law, knowingly allow environmental violations, or respond inadequately to worsening air quality will be held accountable," he said. "We will make our skies blue again."
Related: U.S. Quintuples Taxes on Chinese Cold-Rolled Flat Steel
China Is Grappling With Hidden Unemployment
China's Smoggiest City Closes Schools Amid Public Anger
China: Solar Installations Up 82 Percent in 2016; Coal Usage Down Again
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23 2016, @01:04AM
Americans demand cheap shit, not to be built in our perfect cuntry, but the fucking Chinese aren't people, so kill the fuckers to make more cheap shit for Americans!
Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23 2016, @01:22AM
why 81?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23 2016, @03:33AM
81 because
Lameness filter encountered.
Your comment violated the "postercomment" compression filter. Try less whitespace and/or less repetition.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by linkdude64 on Friday December 23 2016, @02:34AM
If you care about the environment you probably want more things manufactured here in the US where environmental regulations actually stand a chance of being enforced, where you have a population that is so much more informed than the average Chinese citizen about global events/climate change that it would blow your fucking mind, and where the jobs will actually do the economy some good.
Communism: Every Liberal's favorite system that they've never lived under.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23 2016, @03:28AM
So America can go from the #1 polluter of greenhouse gasses, to the extra #1++ version. You are already winning, let the rest of the world catch up. Or, you know, pollute less rather than more.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23 2016, @05:05AM
have ever lived under it.
Communism is supposed to be about the WORKERS OWNING THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION BY WAY OF THE STATE.
Neither Russia nor China has been communist basically since their inception, they only had a thin veneer and good PR machine claiming so, while actually helping the rich get richer and keeping the middle class poorer, much like under Capitalism in the rest of the world.
Both systems in the end lead to oligarchism/authoritarianism and political corruption. The only difference is the steps leading there.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23 2016, @05:11AM
Except the Chinese middle class is expnding and getting more and more well off. 30 years of solid growth and a long term plan will do that to a country. How is America's next quarter looking?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23 2016, @05:13PM
you probably want more things manufactured here in the US where environmental regulations actually stand a chance of being enforced
Not any more [foxnews.com].
where you have a population that is so much more informed than the average Chinese citizen about global events/climate change that it would blow your fucking mind,
A large chunk of the Chinese population is reminded of the consequences of poor environmental policy literally every time they breathe. They're on board with action on the environment. Last I heard, that and corruption (but w/o naming names) are the only areas where they're allowed to criticize the government in public forums.
Nazism: Every alt righter's favorite system they've never lived under.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Saturday December 24 2016, @09:36AM
"Nazism: Every alt righter's favorite system they've never lived under."
Liberals: The only people on the planet who will take a comment that is 100% entirely in support of the global environment and make it about Literally Hitler because the US would benefit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23 2016, @01:45AM
Yellow/red dust fly over from the Gobi desert, smog is entirely Chinese home cooking.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23 2016, @02:04AM
Well, they might be ahead of where the US was [bloomberg.com] when the US started to clean up its pollution problem.
One famous paper, by economists Gene M. Grossman and Alan Krueger, found that (in current dollars) the turning point for environmental improvement comes in “almost every case” when countries reach the range of $17,000 to $18,000 in per capita annual income. Current Chinese per capita income can be plausibly estimated at over $14,000 per year. That means China may not be far from starting to clean up its air, and indeed air quality is already one of the major political issues in China.
The Chinese government already responds to pollution problems with factory closings and automobile restrictions more quickly than it used to, and in general there is better data and more transparency from policymakers. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing reports pollution improvements for particulate matter over the last year. Over the last two years, there have been suggestions, admittedly debatable ones, that China’s evolution into a service-sector economy means that the turning point already has been reached.
I would suggest the slightly generous estimate that, in terms of a weighted average, the U. S. first began to improve its air-pollution problem in the middle of the 1960s, when Americans earned an average of about $28,000 a year. In terms of the Kuznets curve, that means the U.S. was a laggard in limiting its air pollution problems compared to other nations and their average pace of starting improvements when incomes reached the neighborhood of $17,000. (In fairness to the U.S., as one of the first nations to fight air pollution, it faced a tougher, costlier, and more uncertain path.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23 2016, @05:27AM
That just means that increases in average wages have lagged behind during China's explosive industrialization, compared with the experience in first world countries.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23 2016, @02:56PM
Or the cost of living is substantially less.