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China technology
TechScience & Research

Inside China Tech: China’s business (and smog) comes back

  • Some of our top stories this week show how China’s economy is recovering as the country emerges from its coronavirus lockdowns
  • At the same time, satellite images and air quality index data show that hazy air is returning to parts of China as production resumes

Reading Time:4 minutes
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In this file photo from November 28, 2019, smoke and steam rise from a coal processing plant in Hejin in central China's Shanxi Province. Photo: AP
Melissa Zhu

Good morning, this is Melissa Zhu from the SCMP tech desk in Hong Kong with a wrap of some of our best stories from this week.

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First, the bad news. After Wuhan lifted its lockdown in early April and Beijing downgraded its emergency response level last month, satellite images and air quality index (AQI) data are showing a return of air pollution to parts of China, as Coco Feng reports.

China's air quality had improved in recent months as result of recent lockdowns and industrial stoppages related to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the data shows that this was probably just a temporary phase before the country got back to work.

03:31

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which is produced by combustion engines and burning fossil fuels, fell in Wuhan – the initial epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak in China – during the 20-day period starting January 21 compared with the previous 20-day cycle, according to a coloured satellite map compiled by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), a regional network of environmental organisations.

After the Chinese authorities blocked people from leaving or entering Wuhan on January 23, NO2 levels remained static at lower levels (below 150 micromoles per square metre (umol/m2) until late March.

But during the 20-day period that ended April 9, a day after the lockdown was cancelled, levels spiked back to about 300 umol/m2 in the most polluted areas of the city, according to the EEB map, which showed a similar pollution curve for areas surrounding Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

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