China to target irregular enterprises in nationwide pollution control

BEIJING - China will target irregular enterprises as part of nationwide pollution control as such businesses have been found to be major polluters, a senior official said Tuesday.

A pollution control campaign targeting enterprises that are not in line with local land and industrial planning, and violate environment protection rules or operation regulations will be spread to more areas of the country as it has proven effective in 28 pollution-heavy cities, according to Liu Bingjiang, an official with the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The ministry launched a pollution control campaign targeting about 62,000 irregular enterprises in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding cities last year, whose efforts were estimated to have contributed to about 30 percent of the fall in PM 2.5 density in the region.

The campaign will not only help clean the environment, but also facilitate economic restructuring, he said.

Tackling pollution is one of the "three tough battles" that China aims to win in the next three years.

The country is working on a three-year plan to win the battle for cleaner air, focusing on eliminating outdated production capacity, controlling coal consumption and encouraging more railway transport in logistics, according to Liu.