Beijing Newspeak uncovers a remarkable quote in the South China Morning Post in which the Director of the Chinese Research Academy of the Environmental Sciences’ Institute of Water Environment reveals statistics that have been classified, including the fact that, “more than 450 drinking water sources in key national environmental protection cities could not meet the standards, a number six times higher than the official figure.” The official says that to reveal such statistics to the Chinese public would cause “total havoc”:
Honesty is the best policy. Maybe not for Zheng Binghui. In fact Zheng, the director of the Chinese Research Academy of the Environmental Sciences’ Institute of Water Environment, is so honest he flags up a brutally frank form of dishonesty.
My eagle-eyed polishing comrade spied an article in Monday’s South China Morning Post headlined “Government to spend billions to clean water”. Half-interested, he waded through the first 200 words – at least one trillion yuan will be spent by the central government to target the Huai, the Hai and the Liao rivers, and the Tai, Chao and Dianchi lakes – before diving into the juice. [Full text]
