The press center of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held the fifth press conference on Oct 21. Zhai Qing, member of the leading Party group and vice minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, was invited to exchange views with journalists on the theme of "Building a beautiful China with harmonious coexistence between man and nature". Zhai said the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress, noting that the ministry is systematically planning and launching the third round of central environmental protection supervision.

As we all know, the central environmental protection inspector has always been a "sharp sword" for environmental protection. In recent years, it has played an important role in promoting the solution of many environmental problems. In the future, how will the central environmental protection supervision work be carried out?

ZhaiQing said:

Since the pilot program began at the end of 2015, the central supervision of ecological and environmental protection has completed two rounds of coverage in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and supervised some departments and central enterprises.

Zhai Qing said that over the years, the central supervision of ecological and environmental protection has achieved remarkable results of "recognition from the central government, praise from the people, support from all sides and solving problems", as well as good political, economic, social and environmental effects.

Secondly, it compacts the political responsibility of ecological civilization construction. All regions and departments should earnestly improve their political positions, regard supervision as a major political task, a major project for people's livelihood and a major development issue, and effectively implement the principle of "the Party and the government share the same responsibility" and "one post has both responsibilities" for ecological civilization construction and ecological environmental protection.

Third, we will address a large number of prominent ecological and environmental problems. The central inspectors of environmental protection focused on prominent problems and major problems in the field of ecology and environment, cracked down on "hard bones" and eliminated "persistent difficulties", and solved a number of problems that had long sought to be solved but could not be solved.

Data show that the overall completion rate of 3,294 tasks specified in the first round of inspection rectification plans is nearly 96%, and nearly 60% of 1,227 tasks specified in the first three batches of the second round of rectification plans have been completed, and the fourth, fifth and sixth batches of rectification are being actively and orderly carried out. A total of 287,000 reports on environmental problems were handled by the public in the two rounds of inspections, and 286,000 cases have been completed or have been completed in stages.

Fourth, promote high-quality economic development. The inspectors urged local governments to unswervingly follow the path of giving priority to ecology and green development, and jointly promote high-quality economic development and high-level protection of the ecological environment.

We will continue to meet the people's expectations for a beautiful ecological environment and contribute our efforts to building a beautiful China where man and nature live in harmony.