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Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom 42 he was labeled by Mao Zedong personally as a "rightist." When he was sentenced to hard labor near Sanmenxia during the Cultural Revolution, 1969-76, his predictions about the dam had already been realized. Subsequently, Prof. Huang wrote several times to the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo on why the TGD should not be built and requesting that public input be allowed on its feasibility. In late 1992, Prof. Huang wrote: "The TGD should never be built. It's not a matter of building it now or later, or a matter of the country's financial situation. It is not a simple matter of ecology, flood prevention, economic development, or national defense. The physical condition of the evolving Yangtze River river bed and the river's current economic value will not allow the existence of this dam. A democratic government that respects science will not initiate this disastrous project. If the dam is built, eventually, it will have to be destroyed." Huang Xiaolu noted that then-President Bill Clinton had answered her father’s warning messages on the Three Gorges but that nobody in authority in China had done so. She said she hoped that foreign journalists going to the Olympics would also report on China’s environmental problems - going, for example, to the Sanmen Gorge on the Yellow River, where 300,000 inhabitants were forced to leave their homes to make way for the dam, or that they would interview some of the million persons moved away for the Three Gorges. Summaries of Dr. Wang’s articles follow: Beijing’s air quality and the Olympic Games The Chinese Communist government has already invested more than 120 billion yuan (about $17 billion) to guarantee good air quality in Beijing during the Olympics. But the results are not what was hoped for. That is why it will adopt some drastic measures that will only have short-term effects. Under military surveillance, there is not really an organized society. That is why radical measures are needed to improve air quality to make it conform to standards, even if that quality is not destined to be long-lasting. On Feb. 11, 2008, Zhang Lijun, the future deputy national environment minister, told two press conferences that the government “will guarantee good air quality during the Olympic Games.” Zhang Lijun said that in July 2001, when Beijing presented its candidacy for the Olympics, the government issued a solemn pledge on air quality during the Games. Three points should be recalled. First, the city of Beijing committed itself to daily testing of the levels of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and airborne particles. Second, it promised to work for overall environmental improvement. Third, measurements of the four kinds of pollution above were to conform to national standards and indicative levels of the World Health Organization, guaranteeing good air quality in Beijing during the Olympics. Chinese officials consider that investing money is all that is needed to reach those goals, But, while Deputy Minister Zhang Lijun spoke at the National People’s Palace by Tienanmen Square, the sky overhead was as dark as ever.
Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom 43 “Guaranteeing good air quality in Beijing during the Olympic Games” is the objective set by the Chinese Communist government. That objective is stated far more specifically than many planned goals previously set by this government - already a sign of progress. But if one analyzes that objective, one finds that it is for a small area and for a short time and that the criteria are not very exacting. The area concerned is Beijing, whose surface is 16,800 square kilometers, The period is that of the Games and will therefore be less than a month, or two, if one includes the Para-Olympics. The criteria are that the air should be good, or more precisely, defined as good, that is that the four indexes meet national standards and WHO norms. China and the WHO have set a standard for air quality at the lowest level for human health. If that standard is not met, air quality is to be ruled as not meeting the norms. If the standard is met exactly, one might say that the air quality does indeed match the norms, but it would still be far from good. The lowering of values in Chinese society as a whole follows the lowering of values for the Chinese Communist Party elite. These include not cheating on one’s wife, not using narcotics, not gambling and not accepting commissions or tips of more than 10,000 yuan (about $1,400). It is a code of conduct applicable to all ordinary citizens. Thus, the standard-setters consider that if the air quality merely meets the minimal norms, that would mean that it is good. That approach is in strict keeping with Chinese social doctrine. Originally, it was a goal to normalize air pollution. The idea was that by Year X, the Chinese capital would enjoy Y days of clear blue skies. For example, in 2007 the number of blue-sky days in Beijing was 246 – 64.7 per cent of the year, surpassing the planned objective. But how is blue sky defined? It is considered that a dark blue sky is a blue sky, but what about a cloudy sky? One could define a dark sky as “gray,” but one could also call it “blue-gray.” One could even call it a “gray-blue.” In August 2006, when I visited from Germany, friends said we were lucky to have specially good weather because it had rained a lot before our arrival in Beijing, clearing the air. But I thought the sky was dark, and the sun looked out of focus, like an oncoming car’s headlight on a foggy night. I only saw a really blue sky again upon my return to Germany. To meet the objective of “guaranteeing good air quality in Beijing during the Olympic Games,” the Chinese government has already invested 120 billion yuan. That sum is obviously not counted in the budget of the Games. It exceeds the government’s pledged investment budget and the projected profits. To deal with the problem of air pollution in Beijing, the government has adopted several measures, some of which involve long-term air quality improvement; others are merely short-term. The first category of measures consists mainly of moving polluting factories and businesses from the city center, of adopting heat exchange generators, of converting from coal to electricity for cooking and heating, of imposing use of air or particle filters on automobiles, of increasing the capital’s green spaces, etc. Amongst those measures there
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