Inspectors find fault in follow-ups

Officials cited for dereliction after failing to fix problems found earlier

The country's top environmental watchdog has exposed a number of cases of dereliction of duty by local governments after dispatching inspection teams to check whether problems previously found had been rectified.

The central environmental inspection, launched in early 2016, covered all 31 provincial regions on the Chinese mainland as of the end of last year. Since the end of May, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has dispatched teams to revisit 10 of the regions, including Hebei, Henan, Jiangxi and Yunnan provinces, and will stay in those regions for a month.