Beijing issues second red alert over smog

Beijing issued its second-ever red alert for smog on Friday ahead of severe pollution forecast to hit China’s capital, weeks after putting its emergency response plan into action for the first time.

The notice from the capital’s environmental bureau orders factories to close and pulls half of all private cars off the streets, among other measures, as bad air floods into the city for the third time this month.

The red alert, the highest tier of a four-colour warning system, will last from Saturday to Tuesday, according to a statement on the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau’s website.

It will be the second time the highest level alert has been issued since the city established a pollution warning system in 2013.

Beijing issued its first red alert on December 7, declaring emergency pollution measures following scathing public criticism of the city’s weak response to choking smog that settled on the city earlier in the month.

Counts of PM2.5 — harmful microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs — regularly exceeded 300 micrograms per cubic metre during last week’s red alert, according to the US embassy, which issues independent readings.

“Environmental protection is an important objective the Chinese government has been firmly working on,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said at a regular scheduled briefing in Beijing.