In your ridiculous-but-not-ridiculous-because-this-is-China-we're-talking-about news of the day: the Chinese government on Tuesday told foreign embassies to stop reporting on Beijing's crappy air quality. Remember, this is a government that just yesterday blocked and deleted "stock market" and "Shanghai stock" searches and postings when the market dove on the 23rd anniversary of the Tianaman Square protests. The air pollution warning came from China's vice environmental minister Wu Xiaoqing, who was miffed with foreign reports and the U.S. Embassy, which, according to the AP, issues their own reports via Twitter and the web on the smogfest in Beijing. "Wu said it isn't fair to judge Chinese air by American standards because China is a developing country and noted that U.S. environmental guidelines have become more stringent over time," reports the AP's Alexa Oleson who adds, "Wu also said that air quality monitoring by foreign diplomats was inconsistent with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and urged diplomats to abide by China's laws and regulations." 

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Alexander Abad-Santos