China’s ‘Inconvenient Truth’: The video which exposes country’s deepening smog crisis – and has been watched 100 million times in two days

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A man and his child wear masks as they visit The Bund in Shanghai. Heavy smog covered many parts of China worsening air pollution ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images

Chinese politicians have been scrambling to respond to a hit video that details the country’s deepening pollution problems.

The film, made by Chai Jing, has been watched over 100 million times on Youku, China’s YouTube. It is one hour and 45 minutes long, during which time it details how smog is made and the effects that it has on people living in China’s heavily-polluted cities.

The documentary was released on Saturday, and has since ignited debate across China. The country’s new environmental minister, Chen Jeng, took office last Friday and has already committed to respond to a challenge he called “unprecedented in human history”.

That is unexpected in China – since the company calls Chinese people to action against a problem that is partly blamed on the government and the companies it supports, some expected that it would be censored. But instead the government has praised the film and the movement behind it.

Environmental policy is a rarely open debate in China, with the government looking to respond to spectacular reports and photographs of how smog develops in Chinese cities.

A journalist in newspaper China Daily, an English-language publication that is often closely aligned with the views of the state, said that the video showed that the country was at a tipping point.

The editorial said that the film showed how many in the West worry that addressing China’s environmental problems would mean slowing growth. Much of China’s growth has come at the expense of clean air and a healthy environment — though people in the country are starting to worry that the growth will be useless if it means that life in the cities becomes unliveable.

The video — the title of which is a reference to a Stephen King book and TV series — initially went viral on Youku, before being posted onto YouTube. Users have added English subtitles to the YouTube upload, and are working together to improve them.

Chai Jing, who made the film, has said that it was inspired by the birth of her daughter – who had to undergo an operation for a tumour before her parents were even able to look at her. Improving the environment for children inspired the making of the film, Chai said.

Chai was a TV news anchor and made the film using her own funds. It uses slick animation to tell the story of how smog is generated, and the harsh effects that it can have on the bodies of those that breathe it in.

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Independent

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