China Issues Regulations for National Survey of Polluters      

On October 15th, 2007 the State Council issued regulations for national survey of pollution sources.  
    The content of the statute, signed by Premier Wen Jiabao, was not specified but the State Council said it outlined "the scope, content and measures" of the first national survey to identify the whereabouts of the country 's worst polluters, which will begin in 2008 and be completed the following year.
    The regulations stipulate that any officials, survey compilers and survey respondents who falsify data should be "criticized, punished or fined".
    The national survey will be conducted every ten years, according to the regulations.
    The Chinese government set a target of reducing discharges of major pollutant discharges by ten percent over the Eleventh Five-year Program period ending in 2010, but fell well short of its goal in 2006, prompting China's leaders to announce the introduction of a national survey.
   The survey aims at determining the number, sector and geographical distribution of the country's polluters in the country.