USA Today disgraces itself again: praises China's "green cities" in the midst of an environmental nightmare

The praise for the People's Republic of China isn't just coming from the likes of Barack Obama and Thomas Friedman, both of whom pine for a simpler, more -- eh -- totalitarian form of government.

The PRC party line is also gleefully recited by the hacks at USA Today, who claim that "China builds [the] most ecologically friendly cities."

Designed to be low-carbon and energy-saving, China is building more eco-cities, as they are known, than any other country, according to a survey by the University of Westminster in London. The United States ranked second.

One of the biggest will be Tianjin Eco-City, a joint development between the Chinese and Singaporean governments that will cover almost 11 square miles of wasteland and salt pans near Tianjin, a major port city east of Beijing. More than 1,000 people will move in this year, joining 100 residents. The target is 350,000 residents by 2025, says Liu Wenchuang, a senior construction official.

China's buyers don't appear motivated by environmentalism, real estate professionals say. Saving money and preserving their health look to be the big selling points.

Pity USA Today is only in the business of reformatting PRC press releases and can't concentrate on the real environmental issues in Red China. As CBS News reports, 16 of the 20 most polluted cities on the planet are in China.

Here's a taste, if you can stomach it.

Hebei Province Shexian Tianjin Iron and steel plant (河北省涉县天津钢铁厂) is a heavily polluting company. Company scale is still growing, seriously affecting the lives of local residents.

Guiyu, Guangdong province, (广东省贵屿镇) rivers and reservoirs have been contaminated, the villager is washing in a seriously polluted pond.

In the Yellow Sea coastline, countless sewage pipes buried in the beach and even extending into the deep sea.

In Inner Mongolia there were 2 “black dragons” from the Lasengmiao Power Plant (内蒙古拉僧庙发电厂) covering the nearby villages.

Large amount of the industrial wastewater flowed to Yellow River from Inner Mongolia Lasengmiao Industrial District (内蒙古拉僧庙工业园区) every day.

Longmen town in Hanchen city, Shaanxi Province (陕西省韩城市龙门镇) has large-scaled industrial development. Environment is very seriously polluted there.

There are over 100 chemical plants in Jiangsu province coastal industry district. (江苏滨海头罾沿海化工园区) Some of them discharge wastewater into the ocean; some heavily contaminated sewage is stored in 5 “Sewage Temporary Pools”. During the 2 high tides in every month, the sewage then gets discharged into the ocean with the tides...

The remainder of the photos are quite graphic. Only click through if you have a strong stomach.

The only newsworthy stories about China and the environment are the humanitarian catastrophes unfolding as we speak. Which USA Today banefully ignores.