(February 26, 2003) Praphat Panyachartrak, minister for natural resources and the environment, turned heads on Monday when he announced plans to scrap the contract to build a controversial wastewater treatment plant in Samut Prakan province.

(February 25, 2002) More than 100 of the 21,000 chemical plants located alongside China’s rivers and coastline pose safety threats, the country’s environment chief has warned.

(October 15, 2001) A spill at a chemical plant in northwest China’s Shaanxi province has contaminated the Wuding River with 2,000 tons of alkaline waste.

(June 4, 2001) Russia’s natural resources minister is embarking Tuesday on a working visit to neighboring China, where he will meet with officials to discuss common environmental issues.

(June 3, 2001) Nine major industrial plants in the southern city of Guangzhou will be removed from the city’s urban centre by 2010 as part of an anti-pollution drive, sources with the Guangzhou environmental protection department said recently.

(May 31, 2001) Water pollution is suspected in Mudanjiang, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, as unidentified flocs – suspended aggregate particles – have been detected at a water supply source since Sunday, the city government said yesterday.

(May 15, 2001) There are days in Beijing the smog is so thick residents can stare straight at the sun. Residents of the 2008 Olympic Games host city watch the air quality index like they do the weather forecast.

(May 6, 2001) An unknown substance found near the water source of Mudanjiang City, the third largest city in Heilongjiang Province, turned out to be a micro-organism that multiplied because of waste from a wine maker, according to local sources.

(April 20, 2001) … Although China has stepped up efforts to clean up its rivers and crack down on plants that pose obvious environmental safety risks, progress has stalled due to a lack of funds and professional personnel.