China's environmental inspections body charts progress

Having addressed more than 380,000 public environmental whistle-blowing complaints over the past decade, China's central ecological protection inspection mechanism has become a critical instrument for uncovering major environmental problems and reinforcing accountability, Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu said at a State Council Information Office news conference on Thursday.

Since the mechanism was piloted in Hebei in late 2015, it has completed three full rounds of inspections covering all 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Huang said.

Over the past 10 years, authorities have publicly exposed 349 typical cases and transferred 6,475 rectification tasks to the inspected regions and departments. Huang said the inspections have helped significantly reduce long-standing, severe and illegal environmental violations.

He said the central inspection system has continued to play an effective role in pushing local governments to solve prominent ecological and environmental problems and improve the public's sense of gain, happiness and security.

China launched the pilot of the central environmental inspection mechanism between late 2015 and February 2016. Following that, the country launched the first full round of inspections, which had covered all provincial-level regions by the end of 2017.

Teams with the inspection are typically led by ministerial-level officials and report to a central leading group headed by a vice-premier of the State Council.