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ASIA / PACIFIC Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER January 18, 2016 Beijing says pollution lessened in 2015 despite smog alerts By Louise Watt The Associated Press EIJING — Environmental authorities in Beijing say air quality improved in 2015, a year in which they issued the city’s first two red smog alerts and showed a greater willingness to disrupt industry and ordinary people in search of cleaner air. China has been setting national and local targets to reduce its notorious air pollution as citizens have become increasingly aware of the health dangers. Beijing’s munici- pal government has been replacing coal-fired boilers with natural-gas- powered facilities, forcing older, more polluting vehicles off the road, and closing or moving factories that are heavy polluters. The city’s average concentration of PM2.5 — small, inhalable particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs and are considered a reliable gauge of air quality — was 81 micro- grams per cubic meter in 2015. That was a drop of six percent from 2014, and 10 percent lower than 2013, when Beijing started publishing data on PM2.5. The “number of days of most seri- ous PM2.5 pollution is falling each year,” the capital’s municipal envi- ronmental protection bureau said. It was, however, still more than twice China’s own standard of 35 micrograms per cubic meter, and eight times higher than an annual mean of 10 that the World Health Organization gives as its guideline for safe air. Other pollutants also fell, including sulfur dioxide by 38 percent B EXPLOSIVE LESSONS. A Filipino boy cries at a hospital after being treated for an injury from a firecracker explosion while celebrating the New Year in Manila, the Philippines. Despite the total ban of some fire- crackers, many Filipinos welcome the New Year with fireworks, allegedly to bring them good luck and to drive away evil spirits. (AP Photo/Linus Escandor II) Firecrackers leave one dead, 380 injured in Philippines MANILA, The Philippines (AP) — Philippine officials say firecrackers left at least one man dead, 380 other revellers injured, and caused a fire that gutted 1,000 shanties, despite rains and a government scare campaign. Health secretary Janet Garin said a drunken man lit a dynamite-like firecracker called “Goodbye Philippines” and embraced it on New Year’s Eve, ripping his jaw and killing him. Garin said the number of injured, while still alarming, was less than half of last year’s number because of late rains and government warnings that people risked limb amputations if they were injured by oversized fire- crackers. Fire officials also said a rocket lit by revellers set ablaze an abandoned hut and sparked a fire that razed about 1,000 shanties in Manila. q SMOG STATUS. A woman wearing a mask for protection against pollution walks on a pedes- trian overhead bridge as office buildings in the Central Business District of Beijing are shrouded with smog. Environmental authorities in Beijing said the Chinese capital’s air quality in 2015 was better than the year before despite the city’s first two red alerts for pollution late in the year. China has been setting national and local targets to reduce its notorious air pollution as citizens have be- come increasingly aware of the health dangers. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File) and nitrogen dioxide by 12 percent. alert from a forecast of 72 hours of The environmental protection continuous “severe pollution” — a bureau attributed the lowering of Chinese air-quality index reading of sulfur dioxide to the phasing out of more than 300 — to “heavy pollution” coal-fired heating systems. or a reading of 200. “The earlier the Beijing’s air gets especially bad in launch, the greater the emissions the winter, when the burning of coal reductions,” the city government said for heat in northern China increases at the time. and weather patterns add to the The two red alerts came about smog. Almost half of the worst air because of the lowered threshold and days were in the final two months, a greater willingness by authorities according to the environmental to issue one, said Ma Jun of the bureau. non-governmental Institute of Public Beijing issued its first two red and Environmental Affairs in alerts in December under a two-year- Beijing. old system. It meant half the city’s “I think before there had been some vehicles were ordered off the roads on reluctance to do it because it’s highly a given day, factory production was challenging to organize this and it restricted, and schools were closed. will have a high social and economic In March last year, it lowered the cost,” said Ma. “There has been a threshold required to trigger a red changing mindset on this.” Giant golden statue of Mao demolished in central China BEVY OF BRUSHERS. Indian school children brush their teeth in an attempt to set a new record for a mass toothbrushing activity, in Bangalore, India. Thousands of students from different schools gathered at the single venue and brushed their teeth at the same time. (AP Photo/ Aijaz Rahi) Thousands of Indian kids brush teeth in unison for record BANGALORE, India (AP) — Thousands of Indian children gathered in the southern city of Bangalore to brush their teeth, altogether, in an effort to raise aware- ness about good oral hygiene. Dr. Girish Rao from My Dental Plan, a program that organized the event, said the 17,505 kids from 20 schools who participated set a new record for a mass tooth- brushing activity. The two-minute effort was witnessed by an international auditor who is submitting documents to the Guinness Book of World Records. Rao said in a statement that “the earlier record was by 13,800 children at El Salvador in South American in 1995.” Black Pearl Acupuncture Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine are great for: - Acute/Chronic Pain (i.e. neck, back, sciatica & shoulder) - Treating & Preventing the flu and colds - Stress Relief - Headaches/Migraines www.blackpearlacupuncture.com Sita Symonette Licensed Acupuncturist seasymonettea@gmail.com Call to schedule an appointment: (503) 308-9363 505 N.W. Ninth Ave., Portland, OR 97209 BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese village abruptly demolished a statue of communist China’s founder, Mao Zedong, after images of the structure covered in gold paint and looming 120 feet high over farmland attracted heated discussion on social media. Although the official reason for the demolition is unknown, with even a high-level Communist Party newspaper struggling to explain the episode, the rise and fall of the Mao monument in central China’s rural Henan province highlights the political sensitivities in the country surrounding a historical figure alternatively revered and criticized by both the public and the government. The project, reportedly financed by entrepreneurs, cost $460,000 and was near completion when it was nixed by local officials after images of the statue elicited mixed reactions on Chinese social media, and the story was picked up by domestic and international media. The People’s Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper, said the statue may have lacked approval from cultural management authorities, though it also cited an official as saying that did not appear to be the reason. Local officials could not be reached for comment, and some agencies’ publicly listed telephone numbers appeared to be disconnected. Since his death in 1976, Mao has been both revered as a founding father and blamed for political turmoil and disastrous economic policies that claimed millions of lives. Successors including Deng Xiaoping, China’s paramount leader during the 1980s, openly rebuked the cult of personality that had been built around Mao and warned cadres about the risk of overly concentrated influence. Even as China’s current president, Xi Jinping, consolidates power to a degree that has drawn comparisons to Mao, he warned in a 2013 speech against “worshipping” revolutionary leaders without pointing out MOMENTARY MAO. A construction crane rises next to a 120-foot- tall gold-colored statue of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong in Tongxu County in central China’s Henan province, in this January 4, 2016 file photo. A village in central China demolished the statue of Mao after im- ages of the structure covered in gold paint and looming high over farm- land attracted heated discussion on social media. (Chinatopix via AP, File) their mistakes. Still, Mao, known as the “Great Helmsman,” has kept a firm grip on the imagination for a large swath of the population, particularly the dissatisfied, rural poor, drawing notice of central authorities. In December, the Global Times, a Communist Party tabloid, reported on the latest Mao statue to rise in rural northwestern China, where villagers sang revolutionary songs in a quasi-religious ceremony that featured “ecstatic dance” and a shamanistic figure brandishing a sword. “Building Mao temples is not encouraged by the central government or local authorities,” the article noted. The Asian Reporter’s special Lunar New Year Issue will be published on Monday, February 1. 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