Elemental flaw in air checks

Three teams recently dispatched by the Ministry of Environmental Protection to inspect the local air pollution prevention and treatment efforts in Hebei and Henan provinces and Beijing encountered obstructions and resistance. Some inspection personnel in Cangzhou, Hebei, were even "detained" 80 minutes by fake police, according to media reports.

There have been many incidences of environmental protection teams encountering such obstruction when carrying out inspections. Since the environmental protection inspection practice was launched by the environment watchdog, there have been frequent media reports of confrontational actions from polluting enterprises, particularly in North China, which is home to many polluting enterprises.

The environmental protection inspection teams work on behalf of the ministry, but the inspected enterprises show no respect to these law enforcers most of the time, and they even endanger their personal safety. Such obstruction is so fierce that it has considerably raised the cost of law enforcement, and if not severely punished, will undermine the effectiveness of the environmental protection inspection work.