Target counterfeiting enterprises, local environmental protection departments and local governments

Behind the fraudulent behavior of enterprises, there is always the inaction of local environmental protection departments, who turn a blind eye and even voluntarily fabricate to show off their achievements in pollution control. What has been destroyed is not only these few monitoring technicians and a few environmental monitoring station chiefs, but also the fundamental nature of the national environmental monitoring data has been shaken and the credibility of the environmental protection department has been undermined.
Environmental monitoring data serves as the basis for decision-making in environmental governance. If water is injected and falsified at the source, decision-making is bound to deviate, delaying the timing of environmental governance and harming public interests.
Starting from January 1, 2016, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has implemented the "Measures for the Determination and Handling of False Environmental Monitoring Data". According to the provisions of the Measures, the Ministry of Environmental Protection will carry out special inspections over the next two years to strictly investigate the falsification of local environmental monitoring data, especially air quality testing data. It is commendable that a harsher stick has been swung at counterfeiting enterprises, local environmental protection departments and local governments.
From a broad perspective, the central and local governments have made huge investments in the field of environmental monitoring. The funds used for online monitoring networks have long exceeded 10 billion yuan, and theoretically, they have the capacity to monitor tens of thousands of pollution sources. Among them, the investment in the atmospheric monitoring system alone was 436 million yuan, and the largest air quality monitoring network in developing countries was built in 2014. It is precisely against this backdrop that some local governments, in order to alleviate the pressure of assessment, frequently fabricate and tamper with monitoring data. Central leaders have repeatedly instructed that the act of falsifying environmental protection data should be severely cracked down on, and those responsible for false figures should be held strictly accountable.
Environmental monitoring data has been elevated to the legal level and has gained greater binding force. The new Environmental Protection Law clearly stipulates that monitoring institutions shall use monitoring equipment that meets national standards, abide by monitoring norms, and be responsible for the authenticity and accuracy of monitoring data. Those who tamper with, forge or instruct to tamper with or forge monitoring data shall be punished and held legally responsible. In the second half of 2015, environmental protection departments at all levels verified a total of 8 typical cases of violations. All of them have been transferred to the public security organs for handling, and 10 responsible persons have been criminally or administratively detained.
The reason why enterprises can engage in fraud indicates that there are loopholes in the current environmental protection online automatic monitoring network in operation. I have learned that some enterprises have purchased counterfeit equipment, leaving room for data forgery and tampering, in an attempt to get away with it. The environmental monitoring data released by some local governments do not match the intuitive feelings of citizens, and sometimes even show a significant contrast, which is also related to this loophole.
For many years, the falsification of environmental monitoring data in some places has been an open secret. Just like some cases of discharging pollutants into deserts or rivers that have occurred in recent years, they are all done despite knowing it is illegal. In my view, behind the fraudulent behavior of these enterprises, there is the inaction of local environmental protection departments to turn a blind eye, and it is even possible that they actively cooperate with the fraud to show off their achievements in pollution control. This practice has not only ruined these few monitoring technicians and a few environmental monitoring station chiefs, but also shaken the foundation of the national environmental monitoring data and undermined the credibility of the environmental protection department.