The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, China's Cabinet, have approved the first round of central inspection work on environmental protection in 2016. The central government has sent eight provincial-level inspection groups to check the local environmental protection and policy implementation of selected local governments.

Environmental protection inspections are a significant work initiated by the central authorities to promote construction of an ecological civilization and strengthen environmental protection. The goal of the inspections is to enforce environmental protection in local areas and encourage green development.

All the eight inspection groups have now begun their work. The eight groups headed by ministerial-level officials, legislators and political advisors will spend about a month in eight provinces and autonomous regions: Heilongjiang, Henan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Yunnan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions.

Evaluating the implementation of environmental protection work by local officials will be a key task of the central inspection group. Local authorities and officials that have failed to perform that duty will be seriously dealt with according to the related laws and regulations.

The Party chiefs of the eight regions urged the local authorities in the eight areas to cooperate with the inspection teams, in order to guarantee the smooth implementation of the inspection work.