Quote of the week

Patti Waldmeir is the Financial Times correspondent in China.  This week she had a blog on “dirty doublethink”.  In the blog she quotes about the “benefits” of smog:

 . . . some Communist party media outlets helpfully pointed out that smog is actually good for me. In an online commentary titled “Five unexpected gains the haze has brought”, state media said air pollution made people funnier, more knowledgeable and more “united”. “People all over the country have found sadly that we are equal in front of smog . . . no one is better than anyone else,” it said. Then Global Times opined that smog is actually part of China’s air defence strategy, protecting us from enemy bombs. It’s enough to make a girl feel lucky she doesn’t live in, say, New Zealand.