International Herald Tribune
August 21, 2006

A government investigation into pollution-control approvals for construction projects worth more than US$12.5 million found violations in almost 40 per cent of cases, China’s senior environmental official says.

Beijing: China has blamed fraud in project approvals and failure to apply emission control measures for rising pollution, state media reported Monday, as the authorities grappled with the environmental impact of headlong economic growth. The director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, Zhou Shengxian, said pollution had increased in 17 provinces in the six months to June despite a government pledge to cut emissions by 2 percent this year, the official Xinhua press agency reported. China’s senior environmental official also said that a government investigation into pollution control approvals for construction projects worth more than $12.5 million had found violations in almost 40 percent of cases, according to the Xinhua report. “It is clear the conflict between economic growth and environmental protection is coming to a head,” Zhou was quoted as saying. “Fraud in project approval was prominent with many projects passing their environmental assessment without fulfilling the necessary criteria.”