Down the Memory Hole – Chinese Government Bans Popular Pollution Documentary That Had 200 Million Views in One Week

Ms. Chai’s film had simply grown too big. It had become a social phenomenon that threatened to run out of control. Just days ahead of the opening of the country’s largely rubber-stamp parliament, Ms. Chai had hijacked the national agenda with a riveting piece of investigative journalism. “Have you ever seen real stars?” she asks a 6-year-old girl. “Never.” Blue skies? “I’ve seen one that’s a little blue.” White clouds? “Never.”

– From the Wall Street Journal article: Pollution Film Too Popular for Beijing’s Comfort

I’m not a citizen of China, and am well aware of the fact that my responsibilities reside within the country I live in, these United States. Nevertheless, some people who recognize how badly things are going here in America seem to think a world in which China takes on a global leadership position would be a good thing. I completely disagree with that perspective.

Last week, I published a post highlighting how the Chinese government was ridiculously claiming ownership over the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation process in the article: Peak Pathetic – Chinese Authorities Claim Control Over the Dalai Lama’s Reincarnation Process.

That post made we wonder just how fragile the Chinese regime actually is at the moment. The following story further raises red flags. From the Wall Street Journal:

SHANGHAI—A few weeks ago, the guardians of Chinese cyberspace stepped aside and allowed a celebrated former TV anchor to deliver a long and impassioned lecture on China’s environmental meltdown.

Chai Jing’s film “Under the Dome,” released on the Internet on Feb. 28, explained in graphic detail how all-pervasive smog blackens lungs, poisons arteries and stunts lives. Alone on a stage, like Al Gorein “An Inconvenient Truth,” she detailed how the coal and oil industries are complicit; how environmental officials are impotent. A giant screen behind her flashed data and video clips. The film quickly racked up 200 million hits.

Then the censors moved in. First they instructed news media to play down the movie, then they banned it altogether. It stayed online in China for less than a week.

Ms. Chai’s film had simply grown too big. It had become a social phenomenon that threatened to run out of control. Just days ahead of the opening of the country’s largely rubber-stamp parliament, Ms. Chai had hijacked the national agenda with a riveting piece of investigative journalism. “Have you ever seen real stars?” she asks a 6-year-old girl. “Never.” Blue skies? “I’ve seen one that’s a little blue.” White clouds? “Never.”

The whittling away of Under the Dome by the censors mirrors a broader scaling back of civil liberties under Mr. Xi.

In the absence of public oversight, industry acts with impunity. The committee setting China’s fuel standards is chaired by an oil company official. Unsurprisingly, standards are lagging.

Successfully fighting air pollution will take a coalition as broad as the one that Ms. Chai drew upon to make her movie: committed NGOs, concerned scholars and scientists, physicians, investigative reporters and officials unafraid to speak their minds. Yet that’s precisely the sort of organization that gets squashed by a party fearful of independent networks. The fate of Under the Dome exemplifies the problem.

Above all, the message of Ms. Chai’s film is that the fight for clean air in China requires empowered individuals. She herself was inspired to take action when doctors diagnosed a tumor in her unborn daughter, possibly caused by pollution, which they successfully removed after birth.

“This is how history is made,” Ms. Chai says. “Tens of millions of ordinary people. One day they say no.”

We can only hope that billions across the planet say “no” to their respective corrupt governments in unison. The real struggle within humanity at the moment has nothing to do with one nation or tribe versus another, but rather centers around the masses of propagandized and disenfranchised citizens, against their respective authoritarian and crony leaders.

For related articles, see:

Peak Pathetic – Chinese Authorities Claim Control Over the Dalai Lama’s Reincarnation Process

Why China’s Attack on Bitcoin is a Sign of Weakness

China Better Have a Plan

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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