China adopted a national Renewable Energy Law in February 2005, with the law taking effect on January 1, 2006. While not labeled a “war on pollution,” it helped set an early policy foundation for reducing pollution by encouraging non-fossil energy and changing the country’s energy mix.
China’s State Council issued the Action Plan on Prevention and Control of Air Pollution in September 2013. The plan set nationwide and regional targets and made PM2.5 (fine particle pollution linked to health harms) a central focus of national air policy through 2017.
At the opening session of the National People’s Congress, Premier Li Keqiang publicly declared a national “war on pollution.” This marked a political turning point: pollution control was framed not just as a technical problem, but as a major national governance priority tied to economic reform and public well-being.
China revised its Environmental Protection Law in April 2014, the first major revision since 1989, and set it to take effect on January 1, 2015. The revision strengthened enforcement tools, including tougher penalties such as “daily fines” for ongoing violations and clearer rules supporting environmental public-interest litigation.
The revised Environmental Protection Law entered into force on January 1, 2015. By giving regulators stronger legal backing and increasing the cost of non-compliance, it became a key legal pillar for the broader “war on pollution” approach.
The State Council released the Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Water Pollution in April 2015. Often called the “Water Ten Plan,” it broadened the anti-pollution campaign beyond air to include river basins, drinking-water safety, and reduction of heavily polluted waters, with milestones reaching to 2020 and 2030.
In 2016, China expanded central environmental inspections as a tool to pressure local governments and state-linked enterprises to comply with national policy. These inspections helped shift enforcement from mostly local discretion toward stronger top-down accountability, including follow-up checks and penalties.
Central authorities ordered full implementation of the “River Chief System,” which assigns named officials responsibility for specific rivers and lakes. The system was designed to reduce fragmented management by clarifying who is accountable for water protection, pollution control, and cleanup results at different government levels.
China adopted the Environmental Protection Tax Law in December 2016. The law set out a framework to shift from pollution discharge fees toward a formal tax system, aiming to make pollution more consistently costly and to improve collection and enforcement through tax authorities.
On January 1, 2018, China began levying an environmental protection tax under the 2016 law. This step reinforced the “polluter pays” approach by embedding key parts of pollution control into the tax system, rather than relying mainly on administrative fees.
China created the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) in 2018, replacing the Ministry of Environmental Protection and consolidating environmental functions that had been spread across multiple agencies. The change aimed to improve coordination across air, water, soil, and climate-related responsibilities—key for a multi-front “war on pollution.”
In July 2018, the State Council released a three-year action plan widely described as the “Blue Sky Defense” plan, extending and updating air-quality control after the 2013–2017 phase. It broadened attention beyond PM2.5 to additional pollutants (including ozone-forming pollution) and expanded the policy reach across major cities.
China adopted its first comprehensive soil pollution law in August 2018 and promulgated it for implementation. This created a clearer national legal framework for managing soil contamination risks—an area previously addressed through scattered rules and policies rather than a single “soil law.”
By 2018, China’s first full round of central environmental inspections had expanded to cover all provincial-level regions of the Chinese mainland. This inspection cycle helped institutionalize enforcement pressure: local officials and firms faced investigations, rectification demands, and accountability measures tied to environmental outcomes.
The Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law took effect on January 1, 2019, adding a third major legal “front” to the anti-pollution campaign alongside air and water. It emphasized risk-based management (prioritizing areas where contamination threatens health) and clearer responsibility for polluters and land users.
China’s intensified clean-air actions were commonly described in two phases: 2013–2017 and 2018–2020. By the end of 2020, available research finds substantial nationwide reductions in PM2.5 compared with the start of the 2010s, while also highlighting ongoing challenges such as ozone pollution and the rising difficulty of further emissions cuts after earlier gains.
Environmental Policy and the War on Pollution (2005–2020)