Beijing's environment authorities last Friday vowed¹ zero tolerance² to falsification of environmental figures, after Net users complained that mist cannons³, or the "magic smog cleaner," are used around the capital's air quality monitoring stations so that the data gathered will be more "satisfying."

北京环保部门上周五宣布，将对环保数据造假的行为零容忍，因为有网民称有人在首都空气质量检测站附近使用驱雾炮和“魔力雾霾清洁剂”，使收集的数据更令人满意。

The Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau announced on its website that they have been insisting on the principle from the beginning to end to make sure the monitoring data are accurate and reliable, vowing⁴ to investigate the falsification of data.

北京市环保局在其官网上声明，他们自始至终都坚持这样的原则：监测数据要准确可信，对造假行为严惩不贷。

Since last year, many Beijing residents have written online that mist cannons are only used around some air quality monitoring sites, which shows a tenfold drop in readings compared with nearby regions.

自去年开始，有许多北京市民在网上表示，驱雾炮只用于空气质量监测点附近，这使得空气污染指数与周边地区相比下降了十倍。

Data from monitoring sites serves as key input⁵ to central and local governments for policy-making on environmental protection, which under no circumstances should be tampered⁶, Wang Gengchen, a research fellow from the Institute of Atmospheric⁷ Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday.

中国科学院大气物理研究所研究员王庚辰在上周五接受《环球时报》采访时表示，监测点的数据是中央和地方政府指定环保政策时的重要依据，无论如何都不该被伪造。

Besides the data falsification, China's environmental inspectors⁸ and officers are often blocked during their inspection⁹.

除了伪造数据，中国的环境检测员在检测环境过程中还常常会被拒之门外。

According to information regularly released on the website of the Ministry¹⁰ of Environmental Protection, law enforcement officers in Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong Province, were held for one hour by staff from a local company during an inspection on April 16. The company also refused to provide any data and shut the doors of its offices during the inspection.

据环境保护部官网定期发布的信息显示，4月16日，山东省济南市的检测人员在检查一家公司时，被该公司员工扣留了一个小时。此外，公司还拒绝在检查期间提供任何数据并关闭办公室。

Separately, work certificates of inspectors in Xingtai, Hebei were snatched during an inspection on April 17.

另外，河北省邢台市检查员的工作证书在4月17日检查期间也一度被抢。

As China enhances its efforts to curb¹¹ air pollution, it often faces resistance from local companies, as the cost of violation¹², which might include fines and detention¹³ in China, is far lower than the cost of compliance¹⁴. In some cases, companies are even shielded by local governments, which makes independent inspection more necessary.

随着中国治理空气污染进程的加快，环保部门常常面临着当地企业的抵抗，因为违规成本（包括罚款和拘留）远远低于合规成本。有时当地政府还会包庇违规企业，这就使得独立检查势在必行。

However, cheating or hindering inspectors from local governments is intolerable, as government bodies are fully aware of the consequences of the illegal behavior, Wang noted¹⁵.

王庚辰指出，由于政府部门已经深刻意识到这些违法行为的后果，因此会对作弊和阻挠环保部门执法的行为采取零容忍的态度。