Chinese officials fume at US air quality measurements

A device set up by the American Embassy in Beijing which measures air quality in the city has angered Chinese officials.

The city is thought by many residents to suffer badly from air pollution, much more than the official 'slight pollution' status that the city has been classified as having.

However officials have maintained that this reputation isn't justified and haven't welcomed the decision by US officials to gauge pollution levels from atop their embassy building.

Experts even went as far as saying that the method was "unscientific" with the decision to tweet regular updates on the quality of air also not likely to curry favour with the Chinese government.

China claims that it tightened up its anti-pollution measures in January with Chinese and American readings often differing massively.

Deputy environment minister Wu Xiaoqing stopped short of mentioning the US specifically at a press conference but said that such readings needed to stop, saying they were "illegal".

"Foreign diplomats are required to respect and follow local laws and cannot interfere in internal affairs," he said.

"China’s air quality monitoring and information release involve the public interest and are up to the government."

"Foreign consulates in China taking it on themselves to monitor air quality and release the information online not only goes against the spirit of the Vienna Convention, it also contravenes relevant environmental protection rules."

The move was also condemned by Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin, who took particular exception to the way in which the readings were transmitted via Twitter.

He claimed that if the data was simply kept in-house for staff and diplomats then he saw no problem with that, but that he was not keen on it being transmitted for all to see.

Beijing often suffers lengthy spells of cloud caused by pollution with its severity dependant on the wind direction.

The pollution is generally caused by a cocktail of smokestack emissions, vehicle exhausts, dust and aerosols.

Posted by Claire Manning