[ti:China's Factories Break Air Pollution Rules] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:01.96]Chinese government environmental inspectors say they found [00:07.60]a shockingly high number of air pollution violations in recent months. [00:14.84]A Ministry of Environmental Protection, or MEP, statement [00:21.44]says two-thirds of the companies inspected since April [00:27.00]violated rules about pollutive gas releases. [00:32.32]The findings raise questions about the ability of the local [00:37.72]and central government to deal with polluters. [00:42.24]Environmental inspections began last November [00:46.80]in reaction to a smog crisis in northern Chinese cities. [00:52.76]The burning of coal, bad weather conditions and pollutive gas releases [00:59.24]from factories may have created the environmental crisis. [01:05.48]Since then, the government has increased the number of inspection teams it deploys. [01:13.92]In March, the MEP said that 3,119 businesses of about 8,500 visited [01:24.96]had falsely reported the gas waste they were releasing. [01:29.96]In many cases, inspectors found polluters [01:33.80]had restarted operations after being ordered to shut down. [01:40.16]Last month, state media reported that 5,594 businesses, [01:47.76]or 66.2 percent of those examined by May 2, [01:53.76]did not meet environmental requirements. [01:58.08]The businesses were in 28 northern cities, across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. [02:07.08]The government's Xinhua news agency reported that small businesses [02:12.80]and factories made up more than a third of the violators. [02:18.33]It said this made enforcement difficult. [02:22.88]Some companies would not permit inspections. [02:27.92]In one case on March 12, four law enforcement officers were attacked [02:34.40]while investigating illegal production at a textile factory [02:39.48]in eastern Anhui province, the MEP said. [02:44.04]The years of enforcement efforts, growing protests over smog [02:49.88]and months of warnings about inspections have led to a question: [02:55.64]Why do companies continue to violate the rules? [03:00.40]Some observers say the central government [03:03.68]has yet to make air quality a campaign issue. [03:08.64]Philip Andrews-Speed is an expert with the Energy Studies Institute [03:14.32]of the National University of Singapore. [03:18.40]He noted the success of China's five-year energy efficiency campaign that ended in 2010. [03:27.76]He says there must be a similar campaign on air quality. [03:33.32]Xinhua has reported conflicting information about enforcement efforts. [03:39.76]On May 12, it reported that MEP inspection teams have been ordering fines directly. [03:48.52]Weeks later, Xinhua reported the ministry had asked local governments [03:54.80]to halt the production of, or close, businesses that violated pollution rules. [04:02.64]But Andrews-Speed said local officials are unlikely to take such action. [04:09.52]He said they have long been rewarded for favoring economic interest [04:14.76]over environmental interest. [04:17.84]They probably will not enforce the rules [04:21.04]unless they believe their jobs are at risk as a result, he said. [04:26.24]I'm John Russell. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM