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The article focuses on the census of pollution sources to be conducted by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) in China. SEPA plans to determine the sources of industrial, agricultural and residential pollution throughout the country. It made a promise that the survey will not be used as a performance assessment tool to encourage officials to provide data. The survey is considered to be significant to enable policy-making and support the environmental control management.

The article reports that the Chinese State Council has released a three-year master plan to address the country's increasing problem of environmental degradation. The plan includes spending over $85 billion on measures to control water pollution, $80 billion on air pollution and $28 billion on solid waste management. The council is committed to start auditing local government's performance of enforcing standards by 2008.

The article reports on the statement of Zhou Shengxian, minister of China's State Environmental Protection Agency, that most chemical plants located along Yangtze and Yellow Rivers are not being operated safely. The minister commented that these plants are located in inappropriate location and posed an environmental risk. These plants also failed to comply environmental guidelines.