China tells foreign missions to stop reporting air quality

US Embassy officials did not immediately comment Tuesday,but the Twitter feed was operating normally.

China told foreign embassies Tuesday to stop publishing their own reports on air quality in the country,escalating its objections to a popular US Embassy Twitter feed that tracks pollution in smoggy Beijing.

Only the Chinese government is authorised to monitor and publish air quality information and data from other sources may not be standardised or rigorous,Wu Xiaoqing,a vice-environmental minister,told reporters.

China has long taken issue with the US Embassys postings of hourly readings of Beijing’s air quality on a Twitter feed with more than 19,000 followers since 2008. But its past objections were raised quietly.

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US Embassy officials did not immediately comment Tuesday,but the Twitter feed was operating normally. Its readings are based on a single monitoring station within embassy grounds.

The US Embassy on Tuesday reported 47 micrograms of fine particulate matter,particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometres in size,or about 1/30th the width of an average human hair,in the air and said the level was unhealthy for sensitive groups.

Wu said it isnt fair to judge Chinese air by American standards because China is a developing country and noted that US environmental guidelines have become more stringent over time. He also said that air quality monitoring by foreign diplomats was inconsistent with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

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