Beijing to get powers to shut factories and punish officials in smog battle

The government is set to pass law changes that will give it more powers to shut polluting factories, punish officials and place protected regions off-limits to industrial development, scholars with knowledge of the situation said.

Long-awaited amendments to the 1989 Environmental Protection Law are expected to be finalised later this year, giving the Ministry of Environmental Protection greater authority to take on polluters.

While some details of the fourth draft were still under discussion, it had been agreed that the principle of prioritising the environment above the economy would be enshrined in law, according to scholars who have been involved in the process. The fourth draft is due to be completed within weeks.

The first changes to the legislation in 25 years will give legal backing to Beijing's newly declared war on pollution and formalise a pledge made last year to abandon a decades-old growth-at-all-costs economic model that has spoiled much of the nation's water, skies and soil.

Cao Mingde, a law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, who was involved in the drafting process, cautioned that some of the details of the measures could be removed as a result of bureaucratic horse trading.