China state media criticizes government for lackluster smog efforts

The Chinese government's failure to take emergency steps over the weekend to rein in pollution was "indefensible," state media said on Monday, in a rare show of defiance after several days of thick smog once again blanketed the capital, Beijing. The criticism will be a concern for the stability-obsessed government, which is keen to be seen as tough on pollution as affluent city dwellers weary of a growth-at-all-costs economic model that has tainted much of China's air, water and soil. "Their inaction in the face of the heaviest air pollution in a month flies in the face of their own promises and their own credibility," the official English-language China Daily said in an editorial. Similar comments posted by China's state broadcaster CCTV and official mouthpiece the People's Daily on their Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogs over the weekend were later deleted.