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China’s environment chief names and shames state-owned pollution cheats in snap inspection
- 6 state-owned companies in Henan province were caught violating pollution control regulations
- Breaches include exceeding emission standards and falsifying data, environment minister says
Reading Time:3 minutes
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Sylvie Zhuangin Beijing
Several Chinese energy and steel companies – all of them state owned – have been singled out for breaking pollution rules after the country’s environment chief made a surprise inspection tour of Henan province this week, according to the environment ministry.
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The two-day visit, which ended Tuesday, was led by Huang Runqiu, the minister of ecology and environment, and the highest-ranking member in the central government who is not a member of the Communist Party.
During their inspection, Huang and his team said they discovered widespread non-compliance and illegal practices among companies that had violated anti-pollution rules and added to the severe air pollution in the province.
The violations included abnormal operation of pollution control facilities, exceeded emission standards, failure to implement emergency pollution control measures, falsified production records, and falsified online and manual monitoring data.
The ministry’s identified six state-owned companies as the main rule violators.
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“China still faces tough challenges in tackling air pollution,” Huang said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website.
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