Local authorities told to stop rigid approach to pollution

The Ministry of Environment and Ecology released a guideline on Monday urging local authorities to avoid a "one size fits all" approach in fighting pollution and to minimize negative impacts on people's lives and production.

Central environmental inspection teams will visit 10 provincial regions including Hebei province and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region to review the results of a nationwide environmental inspection that began in January 2016.

The inspection has brought major improvements in air quality nationwide. According to the ministry, 338 cities saw an average of 76.7 percent of days with good air quality in the first four months of 2018, an improvement of 0.9 percentage points year-on-year.