China’s centuries-long tradition of celebrating Chinese New Year with spectacular firework displays may be at an end with the government now considering a permanent ban as the practice is blamed for intensifying air pollution.
A severe haze hit Beijing as well as its neighbours on February 24, the Chinese Lantern Festival, because of excessive fireworks displays.
Pollution was so intense that the PM2.5 reached 343 micrograms per cubic metre and visibility was less than one kilometre.
In the days before the festival officials tried to discourage fireworks displays – both the Beijing Meteorological Bureau and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advised that meteorological conditions in Beijing were not suitable for setting off fireworks and called on citizens to refrain.
The day after the streets are littered with the debris of firework displays
But the agencies failed to gain sufficient public support.
Jiang Zhan, professor of international journalism of Beijing Foreign Studies University, said: “An EPA official told me that China’s environmental protection is still in the initial stage, and the EPA is too weak in China’s official system.”
The government is now planning to issue a permanent fireworks ban in a bid to improve air quality but faces a public backlash if it pits traditional culture against environmental protection.
But Wennai Li, the editor of Xuanjiangjia website, said the permanent ban was just like throwing away the apple because of the core, and the ban would upset the public.
“The smoke released from fireworks during Chinese New Year is nothing when compared with the waste gas discharged from official vehicles on a long-term basis,” he said.
Li said setting off fireworks was not just celebrating the new year but was also a release of negative emotions accumulated over the past year.
The professor of the National School of Administration, Xingguo Li, told Xinhua News that the government should increase its efforts to raise citizens’ environmental consciousness.
“[This would be better] than pushing a ban of firework displays because the ban relates to the government’s credibility as well as the national culture.”
However, an online survey has shown that 80 per cent of the population does not support firework displays, a clear indication of the public panic about China’s serious air pollution.
