Beijing…city entered the second full day of its first ever red smog alert, which has closed schools and limited cars to alternate days…pollution readings were…some 12 times higher than the World Health Organization’s recommended safe level…Official media said a number of factories that had defied the ban to keep working had been closed down by government inspection teams…

However, different government departments have been disputing whose responsibility the pollution is -- with some blaming cars, some coal-fired heating and power generation, and others both. And with the government anxious about public criticism, and unwilling to see the economic losses that come with closing down factories to clean up air pollution, some social media posts on the topic were deleted…

And some critics said that without press freedom it would be hard to really win the battle against pollution…Beijing has pledged to reduce emissions from coal-fired power stations by 60 percent by 2020, and enforce the world’s strictest car emission standards, though not for another two years...[mentions 3M]