A manufacturer of air purifiers unwittingly sparked an uproar when it released promotional materials crowing that China’s officials breathed with the help of two hundred high-grade purifiers installed inside cloistered offices around the capital. “Creating clean, healthy air for our national leaders is a blessing to the people,” the company said. Just as the people were getting their minds around that blessing, they learned of a network of “special farms” dedicated to providing Party leaders with safe ingredients. (An Asian Development Bank report estimated in 2007 that three hundred million
...more
