China opposes embassies releasing air quality reports
June 28, 2012 Category Environment, Pollution
Foreign embassies releasing their own air-quality readings are contravening international conventions. “According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, diplomats are duty-bound to respect the laws and regulations of their host countries and should not interfere in their domestic affairs,” Wu Xiaoqing, Vice Minister of Environmental Protection said. “The monitoring and release of information concerning China’s air quality is of public interest and falls under government responsibility. Consequently, foreign embassies monitoring and releasing air-quality readings on the internet do not conform to the two conventions and also violate regulations in China,” he added. Wu said only the Chinese government was authorized to monitor and release air quality information. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing releases regular online air quality readings, including PM2.5. Many times, the Embassy rated air quality in Beijing as “hazardous,” while the city’s Environmental Protection Bureau classified pollution as being “slight”. A U.S. Embassy Spokesman said the air-quality reports were meant to inform U.S. citizens living in the city. Vice Minister Wu said statistics from a single monitoring site should not be used to assess the air quality of a whole area. “It surely does not represent the overall air quality of a city.” He also emphasized differences in evaluating figures. While the figures themselves are often similar, China and the U.S. use different standards to evaluate them. Wu said that should be linked to the level of the country’s economic development and technology. By the end of October, almost 500 monitoring sites in 74 cities will be required to test for PM2.5. Daily average readings of PM2.5 at these cities will be announced to the public by the end of 2012. On June 4, Guangdong province started to release real time statistics for PM2.5 from 62 monitoring sites in the Pearl River Delta region, the first real time data in the country, the China Daily reports. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Weimin added that embassies could collect air quality information for their own staff and diplomats, but this type of information should not be released to the public.
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