7 groups to inspect environmental policies in Beijing, Tianjin, others

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment said on Thursday it will send seven new groups to inspect Chinese central government bodies and State-owned enterprises for a month.

The move led by minister-level officials aims to cover a wider range of departments amid the second round of inspections, which was launched last year and will end in 2022.

The ministry said the new batch of inspection teams will target the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin, East China's Zhejiang province, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, National Energy Administration and certain departments of the State Council.

SOEs, including Aluminum Corporation of China and China National Building Material Group, are also among the targets.

"The inspection will mainly focus on checking whether their environmental-related policies meet the development ideology of the central government and how they deal with ecological and environmental emergencies," the ministry said.

The seven groups will set up mail boxes and telephone lines for receiving complaints and reports about these targets' problems.

Launched in 2016, the first round of the central inspection covered all provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland by 2018.