The North China Supervision Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection was established on December 18, 2008. [zhb.gov.cn]

On December 18, the North China Supervision Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection was established. According to Vice Minister Zhang Lijun, this center, together with the other five such centers – S. China, SW. China, NE. China, NW. China, and E. China – established in the past two years and the Environmental Supervision Bureau will constitute a national environmental supervision system.

Explaining why central government is investing so much effort in establishing this national system, Zhang Lijun said, "Central governmental standards on environmental protection are not being met as a result of local protectionism."

At present, central government's three key objectives are maintaining economic growth, adjusting structures, and enhancing people's quality of life. However, according to the latest reports, some local governments are following the principle of maintaining economic growth while neglecting the two other objectives.

Zhang said, "Failure to properly address the issue of environmental protection is a result of two factors. One is that some local governments have eased pollution controls in order to favor GDP growth. The other is that as an administrative authority, the Ministry of Environmental Protection lacked effective supervisory capacity over the relevant local departments."

In addition to the above reasons, some insiders suggest that under the present system, officials of local environmental protection departments are appointed by local government, which means that the head of a local environmental protection bureau has no actual powers to enforce environmental management.

In order to resolve the problem of weak compliance in the field of environmental protection at county and city levels, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has been working since 2006 to set up regional supervision sectors, whose role will be to ensure that local government and relevant departments fulfill their responsibilities on behalf of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, free of local interference.

"In the past, it has been difficult to resolve some long-standing trans-boundary pollution disputes because local governments alone could only deal with problems within their own administrative areas," Zhang Lijun said. "Now the regional supervision centers have been granted wider powers to deal with such disputes."

The total emissions control target for major pollutants is a binding target specified in the 11th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (2006-2010). According to the plan, by the end of 2010, the emission of major pollutants is to be decreased by 10 percent. In some areas, the performance of local officials has already been linked with the achievement of this target.

Zhang said that in order to prevent local departments from submitting false data, a core task assigned to the six regional environment supervision centers is to verify pollution emission reduction figures reported by local government.

It has been found that pollution standards have already been exceeded in some areas, but that local governments have implemented policies to hinder environmental protection. For example, in some regions polluting enterprises are being protected by local government, and inspection is not possible without authorization from the Mayor.

According to Xiong Yaohui, director of the N. China Supervision Center, they have inspected over 200 polluting enterprises in their six provinces, establishing that most of businesses inspected were involved in some activity or another that contravened regulations. He concluded that weak enforcement by some local environmental protection departments was encouraging certain polluting enterprises to illegally discharge contaminants into the environment with impunity.

Zhang said, "The six centers will therefore take on the task of supervision of local government and local departments of environmental protection, to prevent administrative inaction, corruption or dereliction of duty in the process of environmental management."