Under the Dome

"Under the Dome," Chai Jing's breakout documentary on China's catastrophic air pollution problem, finally hit insurmountable political opposition last Friday after seven days in which the video racked up over 200 million views. The eventual clampdown raised many questions about the extent of internal support for the documentary.

In this episode of Sinica, Kaiser Kuo and David Moser interview Calvin Quek of Greenpeace, who works on pollution problems and has significant experience lobbying the private sector to curtail investments into the worst-offending, environmentally unsustainable technologies. We are also joined by Peggy Liu, chairperson of JUCCCE (Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy), a non-profit organization focused on Chinese government training and other green initiatives.

Recommendations:

Kaiser: “Travels with My Censor,” by Peter Hessler for The New Yorker.

“The 'Deaf' Composer Who Fooled a Nation,” by Christopher Beam for The New Republic.

Peggy: The China Coal Consumption Cap Plan and Policy Research Project and A New Way to Eat.

Calvin: “The Most Brilliant Politician You Never Knew,” by Beverly Murray at Back That Sass Up.

David: “China's carbon emissions could save the world—or doom it,” by Hudson Lockett for China Economic Review