On May 3, MEP organized the second training seminar in Beijing on the strict air pollution inspection in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding areas. Minister Chen Jining paid a visit to the trainees and put forward requirements for the inspection.

On May 4, MEP adopted two national environmental protection standards including the Ambient Air-Determination of Inorganic Elements in Ambient Particle Matter-Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (ED-XRF) Method (HJ 829-2017), which shall go to effect as of Jul. 1, 2017.

On May 5, Minister Chen Jining met with Esben Lunde Larsen, Danish Minister of Environment and Food in Beijing. The two sides exchanged views on cooperation in the environment field.

Vice Minister Zhao Yingmin met with Mochiduki Yoshio, the Acting Secretary General of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), in Beijing. The two sides exchanged views on environmental issues of common concern.

MEP and NDRC jointly printed and distributed the Guidelines on Greater Public Access to the Environmental Facilities and Municipal Wastewater and Solid Waste Treatment Facilities.

On May 8, the Leader of the sixth Central Government Environmental Protection Inspection Team Wu Xinxiong and Deputy Leader Liu Hua rushed to the scene of the gas poisoning accident in Jilinqiao Mine of Huangfengqiao Town in Youxian County, Zhuzhou Municipality of Hunan Province in central China. They got information on the accident and instructed the investigation and handling effort.

From the night of May 9 to May 10, Vice Minister Zhao Yingmin went to Tangshan Municipality of Hebei Province for the tour inspection over the strict air pollution inspection. He expressed regards to the inspectors.

On May 12, MEP printed and distributed the Belt and Road Ecological and Environmental Cooperation Plan.

MEP adopted the national environmental protection standard Technical Guideline for Deriving Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Freshwater Aquatic Organisms (HJ 831-2017), which shall go to effect as of the day of announcement.

On May 19, MEP held the admonitory education meeting on the confessions of the cadres who are managed by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee and seriously breached the Party disciplines, and the meeting to make deployments for normalizing and institutionalizing the Party building studies in the departments under MEP. A member of the Leading Party Members’ Group and Vice Minister Zhai Qing spoke at the meetings. The heads of the Party branches of the internal departments, and the heads and the Party affairs cadres of the Party organizations of the Beijing-based regional offices and affiliated institutions attended the meetings.

MEP held a symposium on facilitating the implementation of the pollutant emission control permitting system. Vice Minister Zhao Yingmin delivered remarks at the symposium. The deputy directors general concerned in the environmental protection departments/bureaus of the provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities, and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, as well as the directors general of the relevant internal departments and affiliated institutions attended the symposium.

On May 22, MEP adopted the national environmental protection standard the Guideline on Available Technologies of Pollution Prevention and Control for Thermal Power Plant (HJ 2301-2017), which shall take effect as of Jun. 1, 2017. The Circular on Releasing the Guideline on Best Available Technologies of Pollution Prevention and Control for Coal-fired Power Plant Industry (on trial) (Huanfa [2010] 23) shall be abolished as of this day.

On May 23, Vice Minister Liu Hua went on an inspection tour to the Environmental Protection Department of Hunan Province. Vice Governor of the provincial government Yang Guangrong accompanied Liu on his tour.

MEP printed and distributed the Key Technical Elements for the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Inter-city Railway Network Planning (on trial).

On May 27, the CPC Central Committee decided to appoint Chen Jining as a member, a member of the Standing Committee, and Deputy Secretary, of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee. The 39th session of the Standing Committee of the 14th Municipal People’s Congress of Beijing decided to appoint Chen Jining as the Vice Mayor and Acting Mayor of Beijing Municipal Government.

On May 30, Vice Minister Zhai Qing went to Baoding Municipality of Hebei Province to visit and express regards to the frontline inspectors conducting the strict air pollution inspection, and checked the inspection progress.

Between May 30 and Jun. 1, the sixth meeting of China-Kazakhstan Committee on Environmental Protection Cooperation was held in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan. Chinese Chair of the Committee and Vice Minister of Environmental Protection Zhao Yingmin and Kazakh Chair of the Committee and Vice Minister of Energy Gani Sadibekov headed Chinese and Kazakh delegations to the event. After the meeting, Zhao and Sadibekov signed the meeting minutes and exchanged such documents with the Kazakh side as the Guidance on Promoting Green Belt and Road and the Belt and Road Ecological and Environmental Cooperation Plan.

On May 31, Deng Shengming, Vice Minister of the Department of Organization of the CPC Central Committee, came to the Ministry to announce the decision of the CPC Central Committee on appointing Comrade Li Ganjie as the Secretary of the Leading Party Members’ Group of the CPC and removing Comrade Chen Jining from the position as the Secretary of the Leading Party Members’ Group of the CPC.

On May 31, Secretary of the Leading Party Members’ Group Li Ganjie chaired an enlarged meeting of the Leading Party Members’ Group, in order to learn and implement the guidelines of the important statement delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the 41st collective study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and make deployments for environmental protection. The Leader of the Discipline Inspection Group Zhou Ying, and Vice Ministers Huang Runqiu, Zhai Qing, Zhao Yingmin, and Liu Hua presented at the meeting and shared their understandings and gains from the study of Xi’s statement and their plans. The directors general of the internal departments, and Beijing-based regional offices and affiliated institutions attended the meeting.

MEP organized the third training seminar in Beijing on the strict air pollution inspection in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding areas. Vice Minister Zhai Qing spoke at the seminar.

MEP released the Guidelines on the Review of the Business Certificates for Co-processing Hazardous Wastes in Cement Kilns (on trial), which shall take effect as of the day of announcement.