Caixin reports recent Environmental Ministry inspections found that one-third of manufacturers in northern China had tampered with emissions data to avoid heavy penalties. The Ministry of Environmental Protection checked 8,500 businesses in 18 of the worst-polluted northern cities – including Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang – from Feb. 15 to March 18. The inspections found that over 3,100 factories had altered real-time pollution data in the monitoring systems they were required to install by the government, the ministry said in a statement on Monday. Inspectors from the ministry also uncovered 120 additional instances where emissions data were fabricated by manufacturers in the cities during spot checks on Tuesday in response to a heavy smog alert in the region, which later turned out to be a false alarm.
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