China has publicly named more than 20 enterprises it says broke environmental rules during this week's outbreak of hazardous smog in the country's north, its latest attempt to bring lawbreaking firms to account by shaming them.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) accused steel and paper mills, cement plants, power generators and chemical producers of a range of offenses, including ignoring output suspensions, "maliciously" evading government inspections and falsifying production data.
Beijing's latest public shaming campaign — in which strongly-worded ministry reprimands are disseminated by local TV and newspapers — is its most overt attempt to bring polluters to account by exposing their infringements to wider community scrutiny, one part of the government's broader "war on pollution" launched in 2014.