China tells US to stop reporting Beijing’s bad air

Smoke billows from a chimney of a heating plant as the sun sets in Beijing in this file photo dated Monday, Feb. 13, 2012. U.N. climate talks held in Bonn, Germany, were in gridlock Thursday May 24, 2012, as a rift between rich and poor countries risked undoing some of the advances made last year in the two-decade-long effort to control carbon emissions from fast-growing economies like China and India as well as developed industrialized nations that scientists say are overheating the planet.(AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)

BEIJING — A senior Chinese environmental official has told foreign embassies to stop publishing their own reports on air quality in China, a clear reference to a popular U.S. Embassy Twitter feed that tracks pollution in smoggy Beijing.

Wu Xiaoqing, a vice environmental minister, said foreign embassies or consulates in China that are publishing air quality data of their own should stop doing so.

Wu made the remarks Tuesday at a press briefing. He said only the Chinese government is authorized to monitor and publish air quality information and warned that data from other sources may not be standardized or rigorous.

The U.S. Embassy gives hourly readings of Beijing’s air quality via a Twitter feed that has more than 19,000 followers.