Bloomberg New Economy: China’s Post-Covid Climate Choice

In the winter of 1993, the soot-filled skies over Beijing magically turned blue: an Olympics inspection team had flown in, and the government ordered factories, offices and residential blocks to switch off coal-fired boilers. We all shivered for a day or two, but the team left impressed.

In 2008, when Beijing hosted the summer games, the pollution lifted once again as cars were banned from boulevards. This wasn’t real progress, of course; it was a show, and to this day Beijing residents use the term “Olympic blue” to describe all kinds of official sleight of hand.