Central Government To Punish Local Officials for Protecting Polluters

Central government officials announced that they will punish local government officials for protecting local enterprises that pollute the environment, according to a September 15 China Daily article and a September 28 Xinhua article. The announcement came after a series of pollution incidents and the finding that pollution increased in the first half of 2006, according to the China Daily article and an August 20 Xinhua article. Specifically, the emission of major pollutants increased in 17 provinces over the first six months of 2006, even though the government pledged to reduce emissions by 2 percent this year, according to the August 20 Xinhua article. Zhou Shengxian, Director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), attributed the increase to fraudulent project approval procedures and delayed construction of pollution-control facilities at the local level, according to the August 20 Xinhua article. The September 28 Xinhua article reports that central government inspection teams will be dispatched to seven provinces in October to investigate and punish local officials who protect polluting enterprises that operate illegally.

Some local environmental protection bureaus (EPBs) ignore environmental laws and regulations by approving the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report of a polluting enterprise even when it does not fulfill the criteria outlined in the EIA Law or other relevant measures. In 2005, the Anhui provincial People’s Congress inspected several small paper mills and discovered that almost all had passed the local EPBs’ EIA process despite causing severe pollution, according to a September 29 Economic Information Daily article (in Chinese). SEPA Director Zhou reports that local EPBs in some counties checked the pollution-control facilities of only 30 percent of enterprise projects before they were granted construction licenses, according to the August 20 Xinhua article. Zhou also noted that almost half of the enterprises did not build the necessary pollution-control facilities during construction, according to the same article.

Some local government officials and enterprise officials also fail to prepare EIAs before construction begins on a project, in violation of Articles 31 and 32 of the EIA Law. Official statistics from parts of Anhui province indicate that most construction projects in local industrial zones had not undergone EIAs, according to the Economic Information Daily article. The article quotes one municipal EPB director in Anhui province as saying, ". . .[T]he project had to be constructed in a short amount of time, whereas to undergo an EIA requires a relatively longer period of time, so we approved the construction in advance." Articles 31 and 32 of the EIA Law stipulate that when construction begins before submitting the requisite EIA report, the EPB or other relevant departments should instruct the enterprise to cease construction within a fixed time. If the enterprise does not cease construction within the specified time limit, EPBs or other relevant departments can impose a fine between 50,000 and 200,000 yuan. Furthermore, both the individuals responsible for the construction and any derelict government officials involved in the process are subject to administrative sanctions, and officials may also be subject to criminal liability.

For related reports, see earlier CECC analyses on SEPA efforts to halt construction projects. See also Section V(f), on "The Environment," in the CECC’s 2006 Annual Report.