Hacker News Reader

>Do you know Beijing has a serious smog issue which was first uncovered by American embassy in Beijing?

So no one in the Chinese government or citizens had noticed that they can't see across the street until the Americans mentioned it?

View on HN

People could see the smog for sure, but official forecast would report nothing unusual or indicating the hazard to people's lives. It was till Americans embassy spoke it out that the majority realised we breathe highly polluted air.

The official forecast in China is presumably controlled by the government. That's what makes it "official". You can't possibly argue that because the US is not publicly shaming the Chinese government into release accurate heath-relevant information to its citizens, that that same government has the right to hack US systems to determine weather information. If that is actually what occurred.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com