It cannot be denied that the senior officials of the CCP have always enjoyed certain “special privileges.” These privileges include state-sponsored limousines, special schools for high-ranking children, and even organic vegetables picked from farmland that is closely guarded and operated by the government. When they are ill, senior officials can go to the 301 Army General Hospital to check their health. The 301 has long been regarded as a high-level medical institution in the capital of Beijing.

Air pollution chokes Beijing

Ordinary Beijing residents are jealous. When the pollution is particularly serious, the air they breathe into their lungs is no different from those of high-ranking and powerful people.

This idea does not seem entirely accurate.

The fact is that many high-end homes and offices are equipped with first-class air filtration devices (see The Best Air Purifier Reviews in 2020), and at least one Chinese company, Broad Group, specifically advertised in its air purifiers that it emphasizes that many officials are equipped where they live and work.

Zhang Zhong, the company’s deputy general manager, said that there were more than 200 installations in the Great Hall of the People, in the office of Chinese President Hu Jintao, and in Zhongnanhai, where the senior leaders and their families live. Taiwan ’s air purifiers, “Providing clean and healthy air to national leaders is a blessing to the people.” This company ’s promotional materials are so complimented that they also include a series of government and business leaders ’ Proof, including the words of Long Yongtu, a senior economic official who insisted on having this device in his car and hotel stay. He said “Breathing clean air is a basic need of man.”

In some countries, providing a series of testimony from senior officials is considered an effective means of good public relations. However, when dissatisfaction and anger rose, news reports triggered by the company’s advertising campaign stirred a storm of criticism. “They don’t have to eat trench oil or drink poisonous milk, and now they don’t have to breathe contaminated air.” A Sina Weibo post says this, which is China’s most popular Weibo service platform. “It shows that they have no sympathy for the lives of ordinary people.”

News that Chinese leaders can be spared Beijing’s harsh air has made the rare appearance of heavy pollution in Beijing. In recent weeks, Beijing has been shrouded in light brown smoke, and air monitoring equipment from the roof of the US embassy has always indicated that air indicators are at dangerous levels.

The data is posted on Twitter via an iPhone app every hour, but it has sparked a public debate about whether the Chinese government is intentionally vague about China’s air pollution levels.

Unlike data from the U.S. Embassy, ​​Chinese environmental officials did not disclose data on the smallest particulate pollutants. Scientists say that particles smaller than 2.5 microns are the most harmful because they can penetrate deeply and be sucked into the lungs. The government’s data only reports pollutant particles larger than 10 microns-this category includes dust storms blowing from the north and particles caused by dust from construction sites.

Environmental officials like to focus on improving air quality, largely by replacing coal-fired stoves with electric stoves and shutting down heavy industries in and around Beijing. On Beijing’s already heavily congested roads, 700,000 new vehicles were added last year. These restrictions have slightly eased the environmental degradation caused by these vehicles.

But the same batch of officials acknowledged after their pressure that their pollution indicators consciously ignored smaller particles, which are mainly emitted from car and truck exhaust. In fact, according to a diplomatic report, the monitoring of the US embassy has become an unwelcome interference in China’s internal affairs, and officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have demanded that Americans stop publishing the data.

The director of a Beijing-based non-profit organization, the Institute of Public Environmental Affairs, is concerned that public disclosure of this data could hinder development or shame the city’s image, as Beijing has been promoting environmental improvements.

“I don’t agree with this logic,” said Director Ma Jun. “The more important thing for the government is to remind the public when air quality is harmful to vulnerable people, such as the elderly and children, so that they can be protected. “

The government seems to be improving in this direction. In September, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said he planned to adjust the country’s air quality standards, including the disclosure of minimum particle targets, although it did not give a timetable for adopting the new standards.

Beijing officials are clearly not ready to do so. In response to criticism of heavy fog in recent weeks, a spokesman for the city’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, Du Shaozhong, assured the public that they should be assured of government-provided indicators that Beijing’s air is only “lightly polluted “Even if monitoring by the U.S. Embassy believes that the level of harm is beyond measurable limits. “The data released by foreign embassies in Beijing should not be used to judge China’s air quality,” he said.