{"id":34531,"date":"2017-01-05T10:53:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-05T10:53:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-09-25T10:41:31","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T10:41:31","slug":"9531-pressure-builds-to-fight-smog-in-western-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/9531-pressure-builds-to-fight-smog-in-western-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Pressure builds to fight smog in Western China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three years into Premier Li Keqiang\u2019s declared \u201cwar on pollution<\/a>,\u201d and this winter\u2019s smog is taking a new turn. On the one hand, statistics show<\/a> that overall air quality in China has improved; on the other, a growing gap in air quality between China\u2019s east coast and its inland cities has tensions flaring.<\/p>\n

In Chengdu, the city of 14 million people in central Sichuan province, the exceptionally poor air has become unbearable. Thick fog and smog<\/a> closed runways at Shuangliu International Airport for 14 hours in December, resulting in morning cancellations that stranded 20,000 travellers.<\/p>\n

That month, Chengdu experienced nine days<\/a> of sustained air pollution, bringing media outlets to report on rising outcry from residents. According to the Sixth Tone<\/a><\/em>, police clashed with a group of artists at an air pollution protest.<\/p>\n

Around 600 kilometres away, in the large western city of Xi\u2019an, another group of artists<\/a> led an avant-garde protest following nearly a week of continuous smog. Putting their creativity into practice, students at the Xi\u2019an Academy of Fine Arts affixed face masks to a stand of stone lions, turning the bad air into part of an art installation.<\/p>\n

Perhaps more than the air pollution itself, residents of western cities are infuriated by the weak response from local governments. Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (also known as Jing-Jin-Ji), being the region most closely associated with smog, is putting forward ever stronger measures to combat the problem.<\/p>\n

Far-reaching, regional, emergency air pollution response measures<\/a> linking Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan and Shandong are now in place. Earlier this year, Shijiazhuang simply shut down<\/a> industrial production for a month-and-a-half in order to meet air quality standards. The difference in government response between these eastern cities and China\u2019s western urban centers has been striking.<\/p>\n

Development and pollution<\/strong><\/p>\n

The differences between smog response measures in Beijing and Chengdu are a case in point. The pollution conditions triggering a level-three (yellow) alert in Chengdu are basically identical to the triggers for a level-two (orange) alert in Beijing. This implies that under similar pollution conditions, mitigation measures in Chengdu will be weaker than in Beijing.<\/p>\n

Chengdu\u2019s economic development model is also facing criticism.
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