Following months of promises to clean up the notoriously smoggy city, Beijing has handed out its biggest fine for air pollution yet: 300,000 yuan ($48,100) to a US joint venture boiler marker.
Babcock & Wilcox Beijing, a joint venture between North Carolina’s Babcock & Wilcox and Beijing Boiler Works, was slapped with the record fine for “repeatedly painting utility boilers in the open air without any protective measures for reducing air pollution,” China Daily reported, citing the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau.
The fine has drawn scepticism from some commentators, who have questioned why authorities decided to target the mid-sized foreign company, rather than many of the much bigger, polluting power plants. In 2013, China came under fire for investigating foreign pharmaceutical, baby formula and food packaging companies
Beijing has dished out 652 fines for pollution since the beginning of 2014, amounting to 14.5 million yuan ($2.3 million), part of wider efforts to reduce pollution through limiting car use and lowering production in nearby provinces.
Officials have said the fine to Babcock & Wilcox is justified, due to the 2,000 employee firm failing to make changes after previous fines.
Responding to the fine, the Babcock & Wilcox spokesman “takes environmental regulations seriously and is working diligently with its joint venture partner to comply with the city of Beijing’s rules.” He added that the company is building an indoor painting facility which is said to be completed later this year.
After years of unregulated, polluting industrial activities, China has recently taken steps to ensure a greener future for the country.
In March, Beijing's first anti-pollution regulation came into effect, with environmental monitoring staff scrutinising the emissions of the capital's plants and firms. According to China Daily, furniture makers and illegal outdoor barbecues are next on the hit list.
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