China’s vice-minister for environment protection Wu Xiaoqing has said a two-year inspection campaign will be run to remove falsified data on air quality in the country. He accused some provincial governments of fudging figures to meet national standard.
In a report published by Reuters on April 1, state news agency Xinhua quoted Wu as saying, “Some local governments make monitoring stations fabricate or tamper with air quality data.” Wu said that such acts severely compromise the credibility of the government and environmental protection agencies and harm environmental monitoring efforts.
A report published by Bloomberg on April 2 says the central government has been asking local governments to meet pollution reduction targets to stem public discontent over water and air pollution. The environmental protection ministry told provincial governments last year to cut air pollutants by 5-25 per cent by 2017, compared with 2012 levels.