Ministries under the State Council, China's Cabinet, responded to a series of concerns from media outlets as well as the public in the past week, mainly concerning environmental protection and subsidized public housing.

Tackling pollution

The Ministry of Environmental Protection said that by May 19 it had sent 23 inspection teams to factories and enterprises in Hebei province and Beijing and Tianjin municipalities and they had found 242 enterprises at fault, accounting for about 74 percent of the total number of inspected enterprises.