China will punish officials in areas that are unable to meet their goals of improving air quality this winter, and will not accept excuses such as inadequate weather or poor economic conditions, a senior environmental ministry official told reporters on Monday.
"There is no way for local officials to avoid punishment by resorting to excuses such as weather conditions," said Liu Bingjiang, director of the Environment Ministry's Environment Department.
Sixteen cities in the north of the country saw an increase in pollution concentrations in the last three months of 2018, the worst in Henan, where officials blamed "unfavorable weather"
