"Under the Dome" is a new documentary that details environmental damage of air pollution in China, but that nation's government moved to ban the movie. The film quickly became popular among users on video-sharing Web sites, before it disappeared from digital networks in the world's most populous nation.
Chai Jing created the film to explain the dangers of air pollution in China, which received over 150 million views before it was no longer available. The journalist sparked significant controversy with the movie, stirring debate throughout the country and beyond. The film was released to coincide with the start of an annual meeting of the National People's Congress (NPG).
The government in Beijing has promised to attack the problem of air pollution, with a degree of openness rarely seen in the Communist nation. Premier Li Keqiang recently described pollution as a "blight" on the nation. However, this move could be an outgrowth of the nation's overriding drive to encourage national unity on political issues.
The Great Firewall is a complex mechanism designed to censor online films from viewing by the Chinese public. Movies critical of the government are frequently blocked from public viewing by the system.
"Some people have the power to completely smother Chai Jing's 'Under the Dome' on the Internet, but don't have the power to smother haze in this country," one poster on the micro-blogging site Weibo wrote.
Before release of "Under the Dome," Chai was a well-known journalist on state-run China Central Television. The 103-minute-long film is being compared to the western documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." In the movie, Chai stated that lax government oversight and a lack of significant penalties for polluters are underlying reasons for heavy pollution in the nation.
Factories and power stations in China burn large amounts of coal and other dirty fossil fuels, which create air pollution that engulfs Chinese cities, leading to significant health problems among the population.
The journalist declared that fighting pollution became a personal journey, after her daughter was born with a benign tumor.
During a press conference held at the beginning of the NPC, around a dozen reporters, most of them from Chinese outlets, asked questions of the nation's environment minister, but none concerned the video. Questions during these events are pre-approved, and controlled by government officials. International journalists attempted to ask the minister questions after the event, but were ignored.
The movie continues to be available on YouTube which is unavailable in China.
Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | Flickr
