China Deletes Media Reports Calling Beijing 'Unlivable'

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/pollution-02132014172135.html



View of a high-rise building in heavy smog in Jilin province, Feb. 12, 2014.

China Deletes Media Reports Calling Beijing 'Unlivable'
2014-02-13
Updated at 2:30 p.m. ET on 2014-02-14

China's Internet censors on Thursday deleted online references to an official pollution report which described the capital city as nearly unfit for human habitation, while state media tried to limit the damage to Beijing's international image.

The English-language tabloid Global Times newspaper, which has close ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party, quoted one of the report's authors as saying that the media had "exaggerated" its findings.

The Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences report, released this week, ranked Beijing second to last in the environmental category in an index of 40 world cities.

"The pollution index nears extreme levels, and is near a level that is no longer livable for human beings," the report concluded.