Pollution Angers Chinese Media

The Chinese media heaped criticism on the government after pollution in Beijing hit record levels on Saturday and dense smog hovered in 30 other cities in northern and eastern China. Officials blamed the extreme pollution on a lack of wind and cold weather, but an editorial in the state-run China Daily said that there was no reason “for us to not reflect on what we’ve contributed to the smoggy days.” People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party, called the smog a “suffocating siege.” The tabloid Global Times called China the “biggest construction site in the world” and called on the government to “publish truthful environmental data to the public.”