ChinaPollution_Jan2015
Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Jan. 15, 2015. Beijing issued its first smog alert of 2015 on Tuesday. Stagnant and humid air has aggravated the city's air pollution, causing the smog to linger, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon

“Under the Dome,” a Chinese environmental documentary, was pulled from the country’s major video hosting websites over the weekend. The move came after the video achieved viral popularity, being viewed by hundreds of millions in less than a week, and made some hopeful that China’s pollution challenges were finally being taken seriously.

The documentary was given a significant amount of state-run media attention, in addition to being narrated by former CCTV news anchor Chai Jing, whose participation was initially understood as an unofficial stamp of approval. Chai was even able to get an endorsement from China’s newly appointed environmental minister, Chen Jining. However, a week after the release of "Under the Dome," it was no longer available on Chinese streaming sites Youku, Sohu, QQ and Tudou. The controversial documentary can still be found on YouTube, with English closed-captioning subtitles, making it accessible to those in China with VPN services.

Over the short time "Under the Dome" was widely available, the 103-minute feature had viewers and local environmentalists drawing comparisons to Al Gore’s 2006 film “An Inconvenient Truth.” Chai specifically calls out China’s biggest polluters, private and state-run factories, as well as the government supervision agencies that do not enforce existing environmental laws. "Under the Dome" was positioned to be an entry point toward a national conversation with officials about addressing China’s rampant pollution problems. According to Chai, before making the video available to the public, she released portions of interviews she had conducted with members of Chen’s environmental ministry. In those discussions, the ministry employees revealed how little power they have in attempting to enforce anti-pollution laws in the face of the nation’s biggest pollution producers.

However, China’s position on continuing the dialogue appears to be hazy. During legislative meetings last Friday, China’s President Xi Jinping announced new zero-tolerance plans to tackle pollution that included slashing coal dependence. “We are going to punish, with an iron hand, any violators who destroy ecology or environment, with no exceptions,” Xi said. Later that evening, the documentary had been banned.

You can watch "Under the Dome" below.