From San Jose Mercury:
China’s top environmental official is blaming corruption for frustrating environmental protection efforts and worsening the country’s already severely polluted air and waterways, state media reported Tuesday.
Zhou Shengxian, director of China’s State Environmental Protection Administration, said in a report to China’s legislature that some local government leaders directly interfere in environmental law enforcement by threatening to remove, demote and retaliate against environmental officials, the official Xinhua News Agency.
“The failure to abide by the law, lax law enforcement, and allowing lawbreakers to go free are still serious problems in many places,” Zhou was quoted as saying. Xinhua did not say when the report was delivered.[Full Text]
