Much of China has been suffering through choking smog in recent weeks, which has hampered daily activities and forced the closure of schools. In response, the government published a list of reasons documenting the benefits of smog. Yes, benefits.

A Time magazine translator indicated that Global Times offered up the following rationalizations for smog:

1. It unifies the Chinese people.
2. It makes China more equal.
3. It raises citizen awareness of the cost of China’s economic development.
4. It makes people funnier.
5. It makes people more knowledgeable (of things like meteorology and the English word haze).

That's some interesting rationalization. Following that line of thinking, hurricanes also unify people by forcing them to leave their isolated homes and gather in collectives. Tornadoes give people a sense of the power of nature. Wildfires place everyone on an equal footing by burning everyone's possessions to the ground. See? The problem isn't nature, the problem is you.

Oh, but the disinformation campaign wasn't done. The Global Times, a newspaper connected to the Communist Party's preferred publication the People's Daily, noted that smog has a defensive benefit. “Smog may affect people’s health and daily lives," the newspaper wrote, "but on the battlefield, it can serve as a defensive advantage in military operations." The article pointed to military operations in Kosovo and Saudi Arabia that used smoke as a means of obscuring the enemy's sight lines and fouling electronic equipment. This takes "we had to burn the village to save it" to a completely new level.

Assuming these comments are real — and China historically has little patience for satire — it's a stunning attempt to deceive a populace about the true seriousness of a man-made environmental threat.

1. It unifies the Chinese people by killing them all and putting them in graves.
2. It makes China more equal because everyone will suffocate equally except the rich people who don't live in the big cities.
3. It raises citizen awareness of the cost of China’s economic development by destroying their lungs.
4. It makes people funnier because everybody loves the weekly 'oh no my baby choked on smog' jokes.
5. It makes people more knowledgeable (we'll add 20 to each living person's IQ for each dead person who isn't breathing our air and hampering the oxygen going to our brain).

A nationalist newspaper has tried to put a positive spin on China’s smog, claiming it is conducive to the country's military defence strategy. Smog, it argued, could thwart missile attacks and hamper hostile reconnaissance.


The article in the Global Times under the headline, "The impact of smog on military equipment". It has provoked a lively discussion on Sina Weibo - and also some angry comments. Photo: Simon Song
“Smog may affect people’s health and daily lives … but on the battlefield, it can serve as a defensive advantage in military operations,” said an article on the website of Global Times, a nationalist newspaper affiliated to the Communist Party’s mouthpiece the People’s Daily.

Missile guidance that relies on human sight, infrared rays and lasers could be affected by smog in varing degrees, the article said. It explained that tiny particles in the air contributing to air pollution could hinder missile guidance systems.

The article said that during the Kosovo war, soldiers of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia used smoke from burning tyres to hamper Nato air strikes. The smoke reduced visibility, hindering reconnaissance efforts, the article said.

Photographic reconnaissance equipment employed by satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles and reconnaissance vehicles would be rendered useless by smog it added.

The article also said that during the first Gulf war, sand storms reduced the identification distances of thermal imaging equipment on US tanks from 2,500 metres to 800 metres, while optical detection of Iraqi tanks was reduced to almost nil.

For most of the past week, extensive areas of eastern China including the cities of Shanghai and Nanjing have been hit by severe smog, the worst so far this winter, which some described as an “airpocalypse”.


Smog in Shanghai today. Photo: Brandon King
Chinese internet users were unimpressed by the Global Times article, which was seen as an attempt by authorities to put a positive spin on deteriorating air quality and to divert public anger from official inaction.

“Are you saying the smog is not air pollution, but a national defence measure?” a blogger said on Sina Weibo microblog.

Another reader who commented on the article said: “But enemies wouldn’t need to resort to missile attacks if the smog continues to increase – people will simply be poisoned to death.”

Yet some others compared the article to a widely-reposted comment made by a military spokesperson who earlier this year claimed that US nuclear submarines would avoid China’s eastern Yellow Sea because their propeller’s might become entangled by ropes used by farmers to grow seaweed.

“After seaweed, China has added another secret weapon to the country’s national defence arsenal – smog,” one Internet user quipped.

 LordofHats wrote:
I'm sorry but this is absolute necessary;

1. It unifies the Chinese people by killing them all and putting them in graves.
2. It makes China more equal because everyone will suffocate equally except the rich people who don't live in the big cities.
3. It raises citizen awareness of the cost of China’s economic development by destroying their lungs.
4. It makes people funnier because everybody loves the weekly 'oh no my baby choked on smog' jokes.
5. It makes people more knowledgeable (we'll add 20 to each living person's IQ for each dead person who isn't breathing our air and hampering the oxygen going to our brain).

 Ninjacommando wrote:
rampant pollution
Ghost cities
there will be 30 million more "adult" men in the country than "adult" Women in the next 7 years (This gap will continue to increase)
China kicking out Foreign journalist.
Growing middle class that doesn't have access to a lot of foreign news/information.
Government agencies stealing foreign business information for their companies at home
Government monitors everything they do

And people call them the next superpower?

 Ouze wrote:
They should have said that scientists don't really agree that the smog exists, and even if they did, that there is no evidence that it's a man-made phenomenon and not just part of a natural cycle.

 dementedwombat wrote:
I was over there for a couple months this summer. I can pretty much verify that stuff like this is a regular occurrence. Good thing it wasn't quite as bad when I was there though. The people pretty much just don't notice it. It's kind of like any other kind of weather as far as they're concerned.