Local officals accountable over environmental problems

The environmental inspections, launched in early 2016 by the Chinese Central Government, covered all the 31 provincial regions of the Chinese mainland by the end of last year. 

At the end of May, 6 inspection teams were dispatched to revisit 10 of the regions, including （SHANDONG） Province, where inspectors will stay for a month, delivering the first results of the new strict measurements. 

Lots of factory closures in China for environmental reviews are happening right now. And many factories are experiencing unexpected delays in productions.

China started the Blue Sky Protection Campaign on June 11 to ensure the effective curb of air pollution in key regions. Apart from smog-heavy Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and nearby areas, the inspections also target the Yangtze River Delta region, including Shanghai, and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, and some 11 cities in the northwestern provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi. The inspection is expected to last until April 28, 2019.

193 companies in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster were exposed as having broken environmental regulations. The ministry handed off all the violations it found to local governments for further investigation and punishment.

China issued a development plan for the Yangtze River Economic Belt in September 2016 and a guideline for green development of the belt in 2017. By 2020, all chemical industry parks and chemical factories in Hubei Province who are within one kilometer from Yangtze River will be shut down, relocated or renovated. Jiangsu has released a series of measures to calculate the total number of chemical plants along the Yangtze River. Chemical plants that fail to meet the environmental protection standards will be closed down.

The price of vegetables is going up as consequence of the environmental inspections. The whole supply chain has been affected by the inspections.