It is still mid-April, but Liu Xinmin has already held five meetings on environmental protection this year, and just returned from three secret environmental inspection missions.

 

Considering the other major fields he governs, such as agriculture, forestry and poverty reduction, the vice-governor of Central China's Henan Province, which is the most populous province in China, is certainly aware of the importance of environmental protection.

 

The whole area of the province, with a population of nearly 100 million, is divided by four major water valleys the Huaihe River, Yellow River, Haihe River and Yangtzi River valley.

 

Huaihe River and Haihe River are listed among the four key water pollution control areas in the country.

 

"Unlike the other fields, environment protection work really needs the support of the local government," said Liu.

 

"Policy implementation in the other fields, such as exempting agricultural tax, is applauded by the masses, but the implementation of environmental protection policies usually offends someone," he said.

 

At the beginning of 2004, Liu announced he would adopt "secret inspection" environment protection checks in the future, and he held true to this promise.

 

In 2005, he led 12 "secret missions" to some reported heavily polluted regions in the province and presided over meetings solely on environmental protection.

 

Liu still vividly remembers the shocking scene that confronted him last March among the coke oven plants group of Pingdingshan City, the province's major coal production base, where rolling smoke covered the whole sky.

 

Liu and his inspection teams were blocked at the gate of a small steel plant when they attempted to see the source of the smoke, which could be seen miles away.

 

"We told them we were from the environment protection bureau but they wouldn't listen and kept repeating that the manager was not in," Liu said.

 

Eventually, Liu and his team forced their way in.

 

The scene they saw was shocking, Liu said the plant was still using technology widely used during the 1950s.

 

Liu soon informed the local government of the situation and the plant's power was immediately cut off.

 

But the experience left a deep impression on Liu.

 

"I guess they still would not have let me in even if they knew I was the vice-governor at that time," Liu said, "So you can see how difficult it is for the environmental protection workers to carry out their inspections," he said.

 

"Without the strong support and co-ordination from the local government, environment protection work is meaningless," Liu said.

 

Liu said that Henan was adopting a strategy of "closing the small and old operations, while supporting the large and modern ones,"

 

"By closing the small operations, we have given greater environmental capacity to the large and competitive operations," he said, "But the expansion and development of the large operations takes time."

 

Last year, the province's gross domestic product (GDP) surpassed 1 trillion yuan (US$123 billion) for the first time, ranking fifth in the country.

 

(China Daily April 13, 2006)