China's Ministry of Environmental Protection found that 69% of the 4,077 firms investigated in its campaign to normalise compliance had violated environmental standards. As a part of China's wider "war on pollution", the ministry began investigating 28 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which has seen record levels of pollution of late. The crackdown on pollution started four years ago, but the ministry has struggled to make powerful state-backed companies and local governments obsessed with growth obey the rules. In recent years, China has been trying to clean up its polluted air, water and soil, by building more coal-fired power plants, banning diesel cars from city streets and introducing new rules for factories and cars.
China's Ministry of Environmental Protection found that 69% of the 4,077 firms investigated in its campaign to normalise compliance had violated environmental standards. As a part of China's wider "war on pollution", the ministry began investigating 28 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which has seen record levels of pollution of late. The crackdown on pollution started four years ago, but the ministry has struggled to make powerful state-backed companies and local governments obsessed with growth obey the rules. However, its powers have been increased and it imposed fines of CNY6.63bn ($963.30m) in 2016, up 56% from 2015, punishing 137,800 environmental violations.