This paper proposes a corpus-assisted discourse study of the representations of China’s smog in one Chinese (i.e. China Daily) and three Anglo-American (i.e. The New York Times, The Times and The Guardian) English-language newspapers from 2011 to 2014. While the Chinese English-language newspaper choose to represent smog as a kind of weather phenomenon without serious public health impact and to construct a positive/responsible image of the Chinese central government, the Anglo-American English-language newspapers are inclined to dramatize it as a disaster with a huge health impact, and construct a negative image of the Chinese government with a view to pressurizing it to take responsibility in the climate change context.