China targets ‘perfunctory’ officials in fight against pollution
Fifty-eight people detained and 641 firms fined a combined US$8.9 million in first half of June, environment ministry says
China is cracking down on officials who engage in perfunctory, or even fraudulent, environmental protection work as it bids to force local authorities to go the extra mile to fight pollution, the environment ministry said in notices issued this week.
Inspectors have been ordered to look out for examples of “perfunctory”, “superficial” or “fraudulent” environmental rectifications, and will tackle bureaucratic box-ticking and actions that pursue form instead of substance.
China’s four-year campaign to reduce pollution has become a test of political loyalty for local officials, with President Xi Jinping vowing last month to use the full might of the Communist Party to clean up the country’s soil, sky and rivers.
Inspectors have been combing the country in the past three weeks to see how authorities in China’s 31 provinces and regions have handled thousands of environmental violations uncovered during a central government probe launched in 2015.
