When China’s leader, Xi Jinping, met with delegates from the Inner Mongolia Communist Party last week, he urged them not to give in to the struggle to improve the environment.
“We must adhere to the concept that clear waters and green mountains are as good as mountains of gold and silver,” he said.
On Monday, much of China experienced how bad the environment can still be.
The biggest and strongest dust storm in a decade swept through northern China, paralyzing hundreds of flights, closing schools in some cities and throwing a hideous shroud over tens of millions of people – from Xinjiang, in the far west, to the Sea of Bohai, according to the China Meteorological Service.
The storm, which came after weeks of pollution, recalled the “aerial pocalipses” that the country routinely experienced a few years ago, forcing government efforts to tackle what has become a political and public health crisis.
These efforts have significantly improved air quality, especially in the capital. But this week, three forces – post-Covid industrial recovery, the continuing impact of climate change in the deserts of northern China and a winter storm – have combined to create a dangerous and suffocating shroud.
“Beijing is what an ecological crisis looks like,” Li Shuo, policy director at Greenpeace China, wrote on Twitter.
In an interview, Li said Monday’s storm was “the result of ecological and soil degradation in northern and western Beijing”. He added that industrial pollutants around Beijing have so far surpassed the annual average for the past four years so far this year.
The dust was lifted by a snowstorm that crossed Mongolia over the weekend. The storm brought down electrical towers, cutting power in several regions and killing at least nine people.
The impact was felt in most of northern China. The measurements of the Air Quality Index – defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency – exceeded the level of risk for particles associated with sand and dust suspended in the air. Pollutants measured by the concentration of PM2.5, or particles of a size considered especially harmful, were also dangerously high.
In Beijing, authorities ordered children, the elderly and the sick to remain indoors and everyone else to avoid unnecessary outdoor activities. The pollution, which made the air yellow-orange in the morning and gray as soup in the afternoon, was expected to last until Tuesday morning.
Many residents responded with black humor.
A meme that spread online grafted an image of the iconic headquarters of China’s state television network with a static image of “Blade Runner 2049”, the dystopian sci-fi movie of 2017. Other it showed spaceships and figures from “Ultraman”, a Japanese superhero franchise, marching through the darkness of Beijing.
Given the improvements in air quality in recent years, newcomers to Beijing have experienced such air for the first time.
“I couldn’t see the building across the street,” said Wang Wei, a 23-year-old university student who recently moved from Henan to Beijing, a province in central China. “I didn’t think the sky could be so yellow.”
The environment remains a politically sensitive issue for the leadership of the Communist Party. Mr. Xi has repeatedly called for a “green revolution” in the Chinese economy and, last year, he promised that China would accelerate its efforts to reduce carbon emissions, which have contributed to climate change.
Pollution proved to be a pernicious challenge, as the authorities continue to prioritize economic development.
Recently concluded legislative meetings took place during several days of heavy pollution that was attributed to the increase in steel and cement production. Many environmental groups were disappointed that the new five-year development plan adopted at these meetings in Beijing did not include more specific government proposals to deal with climate change.
Still, Xi’s exhortations sometimes seem to drive authorities into action. Last week, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment alerted authorities in Tangshan, the country’s steel center in Hebei province, after discovering that four steelmakers have failed to reduce production to reduce pollution.
In Inner Mongolia, a northern China region whose delegates Mr. Xi met in Beijing, the local edition of the People’s Daily presented an article on efforts to combat desertification, which contributed to sandstorms. The article appeared on Monday at the time of the worst pollution in years.
“The yellow sands are disappearing and the green trees are blooming,” he proclaimed.
Albee Zhang and Elsie Chen contributed research.