5,763 officials accountable for pollution

China completed a high-level environmental inspection of 31 provincial regions on Friday, including the latest round, in which over 5,700 government officials were held accountable, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said on Monday.

The last inspection round - the fourth - began in mid-August and covered eight provincial-level regions - Jilin, Zhejiang, Shandong, Hainan, Sichuan and Qinghai provinces as well as the Tibet and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions. Inspectors finished their field work on Friday, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

As of Friday, the inspectors had discovered 39,585 pollution problems and alerted the provincial governments. Of those problems, 35,039, or 88 percent, were dealt with. Taking heavy hits were polluting companies and irresponsible government officials, the ministry's data show.