Environmental inspectors dispatched by the central government examine a polluting power plant in Heze, Shandong province, in December.Cai Yang/ Xinhua

'Accountability storm'

The high-level inspection teams, a development ordered by State Council, China's Cabinet, play a similar role to that of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the nation's top anti-graft watchdog, which regulates the activities of government officials and weeds out corruption.

Last year, the inspectors launched a large-scale "accountability storm" targeting government officials after some key leaders, who should play major roles in environmental protection, failed to fulfill their responsibilities.

Unlike officials from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, which usually conducts pollution checks, the central inspectors have greater power to hold talks with leading provincial officials. In July, for example, they spoke with 195 provincial leaders to gauge their effectiveness in the fight against pollution.

Additionally, the teams investigated reports filed by the public via a phone hotline and special email box, and conducted field investigations into the issues that attracted the most attention.

In the 16 inspected regions, including several industrialized and well-developed areas, the inspectors exposed details of long-standing problems in full, thus emphasizing the central government's determination to improve the environment, according to experts.

The teams were allowed to speak frankly with local governments to examine problems that had been swept under the carpet.

For example, even though the measures adopted by Zhengzhou, a city in Henan province, failed to achieve the 2015 target for the reduction of air pollution, the city government's efforts received a favorable assessment. That was because the local assessors had failed to understand the importance of environmental protection, said Wang Wanbin, head of the central inspection team that visited the province.