Officials punished for their failures as Beijing clears the air for APEC
Print Edition
Twenty-four government officials in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China’s Hebei Province, have received administrative punishments for their failure to combat air pollution ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit in neighboring Beijing.
No details of the punishments were given.
Meanwhile, the heads of five companies in Shijiazhuang have been detained and fined a total of 350,000 yuan (US$56,451) for failing to follow anti-pollution measures, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.
A campaign to clear the air is underway in Beijing and the neighboring provinces of Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Tianjin City.
In Shandong, authorities are restricting traffic in the cities of Jinan, Zibo, Dongying, Dezhou, Liaocheng and Binzhou cities, with drivers only allowed on roads on alternate days depending on whether their plates end with an odd or even number.
The restrictions will remain in place until Wednesday, the day after the APEC meetings end.
Similar restrictions are in place in Tianjin and Beijing, and Hebei’s Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Handan, Xingtai and Langfang cities, which have recorded the worst air quality in China in the past year.
In Beijing, another 100 companies have been ordered to stop or limit production over the next few days following the 141 announced earlier.
Beijing’s moves have led to dazzling clear skies in the capital on Thursday, with levels of PM2.5 particulates, the smallest and most dangerous, falling to just 4 micrograms per cubic meter — down from more than 400 during a stretch of heavy pollution last month. But yesterday, the reading dropped back to 60, according to AFP.
All mine-related companies in Hebei’s Baoding City have ceased production and straw burning is banned.
Ministry of Environmental Protection officials said that 395 companies in and around Beijing had been checked as of Wednesday, and 33 found not to have stopped or limited production as required, while 31 had excessive discharges.
Officials also checked 103 construction sites, and found 18 failing to stop construction as required and 37 not controlling dust effectively.
Straw was being burned at 100 spots while some factories were still discharging black smoke.
The campaign against air pollution during the APEC meetings is the most intensive one in China after the Beijing Olympics, said Chai Fahe, deputy director of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.
Meanwhile, the term “APEC blue” has been coined to describe clear sky in the capital but it also refers to something beautiful but fleeting and unrealistic.
In contrast, “Beijing smog” is used to describe something persistent.
The terms are circulating widely on social media, with a typical example being: “He’s not really into you. It’s an APEC blue. He’s so into you, it’s like a Beijing smog.”
“APEC blue conveys a message that with determination and joint efforts, the air pollution can be tackled,” yesterday’s People’s Daily commented.
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