China Cleaned Up Beijing's Smog For Its Military Parade, But Of Course It Didn't Last

It’s no coincidence that the China’s capital city had clear, sunny skies for the country’s huge military parade last week, or that Beijing’s dense smog returned the very next day. The Chinese government took extreme measures to guarantee clear skies for the its display, but it took less than 24 hours for air pollution to ramp up again afterward.

Last month, Chinese officials set a goal: reduce air pollution in Beijing by 40% to cut pollution in neighboring cities by 30% — not as a long-term environmental plan, mind you, but as a short-term move to ensure clear skies for a military parade. China held a massive military parade on Sept. 4, marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, and officials wanted clear skies for the event.

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So they partially shut the capital city down in the weeks leading up to the parade, starting around Aug. 20. China shut down between 10,000 and 12,000 factories in Beijing and neighboring cities. That included nearly every steel mill in Beijing and the nearby cities of Hebei and Tianjin, which, according to theGuardian, accounted for about 6.6 million tons of lost production. 40,000 construction sites in and around Beijing also shut down for the duration.

China took four out of five government vehicles in Beijing off the road, and only half of the five million private cars registered in Beijing were allowed to drive on any given day. Drivers were assigned alternating days, depending on whether they had even-numbered or odd-numbered license plates.

“Parade Blue” Skies

The drastic measures actually worked. Beijing is one of the smoggiest cities in the world, but for fifteen days, culminating in the day of the parade — Thursday, Sept. 3 — Beijing’s skies cleared.

FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Its air quality improved significantly, based on the air quality index (AQI), a standard used to describe the amount of air pollution in an area. The scale runs from 0 to 500, divided into six color-coded categories. On parade day, the U.S. embassy in Beijing reported an AQI of about 17, which is well within the “green” range of 0 to 50 that denotes the healthiest, least polluted air on the AQI scale.

Locals dubbed the phenomenon of sunny skies “parade blue.” Beijing residents seem to have enjoyed the clear skies while they lasted, but the tongue-in-cheek phrase shows that they understood exactly why they were briefly treated to improved skyline views and strangely breathable air. CNN reported on Fridaythat Chinese authorities might have taken offense to the phrase and censored it on Chinese social media sites like Weibo, since they could find only three posts using the phrase on Friday.