China’s biggest polluters face wrath of data-wielding citizens

Besides facing hefty fines, criminal punishments and the possibility of closure, the worst emitters in China risk additional public anger as new smartphone applications and lower-cost monitoring devices widen access to data on pollution sources.

Azure Map, an application made by a group of organisations including the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Alibaba Foundation, provides pollution data from more than 3,000 large coal-powered, steel, cement and petrochemical production plants. Origins Technology in July began sale of the Laser Egg, a palm-sized air quality monitor used to track indoor and outdoor air quality by measuring fine particulate matter in the air.

“Letting people know the sources of regional pollution will help the push for control over emissions of every chimney,” said Ma Jun, the founder and director of the Beijing-based IPE.

The phone map and Laser Egg are the latest levers in prying control over information on air quality from the hands of the few to the many, and they are beginning to weigh on how officials respond to the issue. Numerous smartphone applications, including those developed by Sina and Moji Fengyun (Beijing) Software Technology Development, now provide people in China with real-time access to air quality readings, essentially democratising what was once an information pipeline available only to the government.

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“China’s continuing struggle to control and reduce air pollution exemplifies the government’s fear that lifestyle issues will mutate into demands for political change,” University of Michigan political science associate professor Mary Gallagher said.

Even the government is getting in on the act. The Ministry of Environmental Protection rolled out a smartphone application called “Nationwide Air Quality” with the help of Wuhan Juzheng Environmental Science & Technology at the end of 2013.