WERE IT NOT for the shower on Sunday afternoon, the suffocating smog shrouding Beijing from Thursday would have lasted longer. In the past, rarely has Beijing been covered by smog during the most anticipated yet extremely short fall. Beijing News comments:

The Ministry of Environmental Protection warned last week that "multiple meteorological factors" might cause smoggy weather in September and October, much earlier than winter, in North China.

That the Beijing municipal government implemented the capital's emergency air pollution prevention and control measures immediately after the ministry's warning deserves praise. At the city government meeting, Party chief Cai Qi openly criticized 14 residential community and township authorities for their inability to cut pollution from local sources, and vowed to reduce PM2.5(hazardous particulates less than 2.5 microns in diameter) in the air.