Twittering Beijing's Bad Air

"Meteorological conditions accounted for 40 percent of the variation in concentrations of coarser particulate matter, while pollution control measures accounted for only 16 percent, the study said."

That's interesting.

So basically what this report said is that Beijing was lucky for having the cooperation from God during the Olympics.

But luck is important.

Regardless what we human being are doing at the end of the day it is the hands of God that will determine our fortune.

Don't forget that the study is "joint American-Chinese study". You can bet the Americans on the study strong armed the Chinese to say that it owed more to the weather than pollution control measures. Therefore, this study should not be trusted. Only purely Chinese studies should be considered.

As all Chinese will agree that the Chinese government can do, and will succeed, in anything that it sets its mind to do, including changing the weather and the climate, and convicting Deng Yujiao.

"Who do you speak for: The Party or the People ?"
http://tinyurl.com/n6asov
This is the question to journalists from a Chinese government official.

The politically correct answer is, of course: "The Party represents the people, and therefore I must speak for the people."

The question introduced an interesting concept. Does that mean there is a difference speaking for the Party and speaking for the people ? Why is there a difference, and what is the difference ?

What follows is even more interesting. The government agency then released a statement saying that the said official was speaking for himself, not for the government, while he was handling the matter as an government official. Since there is freedom of speech in China, and therefore the government cannot do anything about such statements. And that this official continues to work at the agency.

First of all, Chinese should be controlled, as Jackie Chan says. The Chinese government better find ways to control what its government officials say.

And if government officials only represents themselves when speaking to journalists in a government sponsored events, when do they actually speak for the government ? In bed, in bars, in dancing halls, or never ? Does that mean the people must get messages from government from CIA ?

While the highly politically motivated China-basing clan comprised of ill-minded jobless losers keeps dumping the same old smelling waste, progress is being made by people with talent and good will.

For Austin's information, I just watched an interesting documentation produced by Japan's NHK on HDNet, a high definition TV station jobless China-bashing losers can't afford to pay to watch. The documentation is about the development of a cutting-edge electric car by a Japanese professor and his research group. It also talks about how a Shanghai-based Chinese company has made itself a leader in battery technology which is crutial to the technological and economical viability of future electric car.
Anyway, your article about e-bike is very interesting. Perhaps you can dig a little bit more into this battery story as well ... in stead of sitting at the Beijing apartment complaining how bad the air quality is, a professional journalist with good faith should get his ass out of the comfortable chair and do some meaningful ground work for the sake of all of us ... perhaps excluding the pathetic hopeless jobless ill-minded China-bashing clan.

As demonstrated quite clearly at this forum, the pathetic politically-motivated ill-minded jobless China-bashing clan can only make the air quality worse by keep dumping smelling waste.
To improve the air quality, we should turn to the practice of the responsible and talent people for clue ...

To be honest, I am quite amazed by the efficiency of the west media. just because of a couple of bad weather days in Beijing, a whole china-bashing campaign came like a storm. I noticed on Time china blog a couple of days ago writen by sergent, then, on AP linked by yahoo, then thanks to Austin, I found out that there are more and more. WOW...

From a couple of bad weather day to "the good air conditions during last year's Olympics owed more to the weather than pollution control measures." are we still living in the Cultural Revolution???????
The paper is more academatic, however, the way in which these west media cite it is so political.

Is this something new? No. there were far more Chinese supporters during the olympic torch relay in London last year, but the cameras from west media only filmed those with Dalai flags. During the San Fran relay, the CNN newswoman pointed toward the sea of Chinese national flags, and said, "these are thousands of people coming here very early to protest China' human rights and bla...bla".

I said before, Chinese who do not see the outside world believe the west media and the west. Those who have lived in the west for enought time know the true face of these people. with the rapid communication and travelling, some people here hope Chinese people would be more "pro-west", I bet exactly the opposite, if the west media don't change. for how long do I have to wait for a change? for a cynic like me, i would say, never, since the west has its own interest. The interest of west media is not bridging peoples with different cultures but to prove west supremacy...

This is 2009, I don't even know how the 2008 Olympic is still revelent. and the "air quality during 2008 olympics", what a important issue we are facing rightnow!!!!!
Does the success of China hurt the heart of some people this bad and this deeply??????

Ah, now we have sped up the pace. We don't suppose to remember about events 20 years go. Now it is last year's Olympics. I wonder why the Chinese government released the news about it making money last year. Istn't that passe and is now unmentionable. We must condemn the Chinese government for dragging up such non-events to confuse the people. Such exploitation of past events by the Chinese government is hurting the feeling of Chinese deeply.

I think the Chinese government has the perfect solution to its current pollution problem: Ignore it and it will go away, in a year's time. In 12 months, it won't be discussed at all. All Chinese people would understand and support this program, which is an excellent exhibition of Chinese characteristics.

http://tinyurl.com/nbmvha

Is this person speaking for himself or the government ? Will any government agency come out to clarify that ? And will the person clarifying it speaking for himself or the government... etc. etc. etc.

Is there any hope that the air quality over this Time forum could be improved?
Perhaps, at the time when the pathetic jobless China-bashing folks find themselves a decent job so that they can live a decent normal human life instead of having to begging the NGOs or GOs whose mission is to bash China for desperatedly needed life-support fundings.

2morrow2: everyone here knows that you're not jobless. We even know that you earn 50 cents every time you post a comment. I wouldn't call yours a decent job though.

Harmony in China:
http://tinyurl.com/mbebez

Better read this NOW, before it is also harmonized.
It is about a riot that did not happen caused by some one not suicided by the PSB and didn't died in China.

Another riot did not take place at 北京南站地区 June 20'th. And the slogan wasn't “打倒腐败 打倒贪官”, which is not something the Chinese government can ever tolerate, in fear of loosing their power, authority and mandate from heaven. 腐败贪官 is the backbone of Chinese governance. It is the essential part of the glorious Chinese cultural heritage, to be enshrined by the UN as a unique Chinese characteristic.

Chinese government should protest strongly against this illegal and unjust verdict by the so called court in New Zealand. 薛乃印's behavior is totally acceptable and expected of any Chinese, to uphold the Chinese cultural heritage and characteristics. What he did is totally understandable. The death of his wife is probably caused by snoring during sleeping, or playing hide and seek, bump her head fall from her bed, or banging her head against a brick wall (a common Chinese pass time). She might even be suicided. It has nothing to do with 薛乃印 at all, as all Chinese posters here will attest to.

Well, the jobless starts to cry ... and interestingly enough it is a cry that is claimed to be on behalf of everybody ...
The question is, how can one cry out on behalf of everybody without everybody's authorization?

Just a simple proof of status... interesting.

Lots of good things have been said about China's economy. But should Beijing be complacent? Certainly not, especially when it comes to the deteriorating environment.

Apart from the sand storm and air pollution, China's water quality is degrading and leaves much to be desired. One can only hope that while the authority has been concentrating on the economic advancement, it ought to spare more time and greater effort to improve its biosphere and ecosystem. Otherwise, it may well be too late several years down the road.

Who knows when the capital will be engulfed in flying sand if no or little concerted effort has been seriously implemented?
(Tan Boon Tee)

Another way to get your way in China:
http://tinyurl.com/la7qz8

@tanboontee,
Valid concerns and questions with good faith.
But if you watch a little bit closer what's going on in China, you may find that while the economic development may be the first priority of the Chinese authority, the environmental matters have also moved up on the ladder of the agenda.
And certainly any issues in China is way more complex than simply a matter of how the authority sets up its agenda.
For one thing, close observations by many experts both from east and west have unveiled that in today's China, the assumption that there is only one authority, one that sits in Beijing, is not a valid one anymore. The truth of fact is that there are numerous authorities in China and there are competing interest amongst them. So, while certain authorities in Beijing may be very interested in environmental protection, other authorities, namely the local ones, may still set up conflicting prorities in their political agenda.
Observers and commentators with credibility must realize that there has been a decentralization of powers in China in the last dacade or so and therefore any trustworthy analysis on issues in China should be done with the recognition of this new political reality.
The other important things to keep in mind is that the Chinese sociaty itself has also become increasingly diverse and complex. The assumption usually made by naive western observers or ill-minded members of the China-bashing clan, that the Communist government of China is on the opposit side of the Chinese public, is a false assumption. Similar to the western sociaty we see today, public opinions towards the environmental protection varied. While there may have been an increased awareness of the environmental issues amongst the public in China (e.g., Xiamen's public outcry forced the relocation of a Taiwanese chemestry factory), generally speaking people still give the so-called quality of life (in fact, the quantity of life, following the be-loved American Dream) the priority in pursuing a better life. Similar to the situation here in the West, the people of China are perhaps no wiser in terms of chosing between the long-term gain and short-term pain scenario Vs the short-term gain and long-term pain scenario. That's precisely the reason why when facing an economic downtown, even the Obama administration here in the much more democratic US has to make economy the first priority ... although I do give credit to President O in terms of his great capability of delivering sexy speeches on pursuing a much more environmentally friendly political agenda.
Anyway, the ponit is, once one can find ways to let the ill-minded China-bashing clan shut their dirty mouths up, people with good faith may start a meaning dialogue on many critical matters facing China and the rest of the world. Experience in the relatively matured democratic west tells us that while everybody should have the freedom of experesson, when it comes down to serious business, often time you will have to kick some of the ill-minded individuals off from the room in order to let the dialogue keep going amongst the people with good faith in a turely democratic and healthy way.

why do you delete my response to Yeung?
i have to test which sentence offended you...

1. C.A. Yueng,
I believe in mutual understanding and mutual trust. I believe only when people respect the differences, can we live together. that is why I said time and time again, the media should help people to understand each other. What the West media is doing is simply disgusting and cannot win the trust from me. The West media is now doing what Chinese media was doing in the 1960s. Nowadays, Chinese media present a much balanced view of the West, in fact, often I found Chinese media are far too pro-west. If people in the West believe their system is better, please keep it to yourself, not force onto some who doesn't like

I don't see any inconsistence in Hu's words. He is absolutely right, in fact. Today's world is a global village, countries are tied so closely by economy and trade. It is important that China and US have good relationship and Hu and Obama have a good personal relationship. and Chinese people and American people have good relationship too. What should the West media do? to build a bridge or to dig a gulf?

The US has its two sided-policy toward China, on one hand, it engages China economically and politically, for example in handling global economic crises, North Korea and Iran and Iraq issues. On the other hand, the US release Chinese terrorists to third countries, because they blew up buses in China and killed Chinese not Americans; the US sell weapons to Taiwan, one of China's provinces, even though the US agreed to reduce the arms sale gradually in the 1970s, but it continues to today and increases significantly. The West on one hand realize that Tibet is part of China but continue to support Dailai Lama's separate activities. As I said, this is in fact consistence; that is consistently for the West's interest. Hu's apparent inconsistence to you is consistence to me, as for China's interest. Since US and eventually any major players in the world use this carrot and stick policy, I don't see anything wrong with Hu's welcome language to Obama, a guest, and warning language toward his own comrades.

By the way, you are far too naive, POLITICIANS LIE!! If you believe your primary ministers or politicians never get away from lying or doing things in an “inconsistent” way. Where in the world do you live? Ah… Australia...Sorry, I did not pay much attention to it... I don't care which party you belong to, seriously, whatever you pay your patriotism is not even a major player on this chessboard. Do you have a stick? Maybe that is why you still trust your politicians, they only have carrots to hand out anyway...