China's environmental authority found 2,808 companies in violation of standards during the first round of air pollution inspection.
Inspection teams in 28 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and nearby areas found 2,808 of 4,077 companies breaking the rules, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) said in a statement.
Problems included unlicensed production, inefficient dust prevention and lack of or malfunction of pollution treatment facilities, the statement said.
Inspectors also found that some enterprises which had been closed for violations illegally resumed production and some reported fake monitoring data.
Some companies refused the inspection or prevented inspectors from carrying out their duties, said the statement.
The statement said the first round of inspection ended as of April 20and the second round had already started. There will be a total of 25 rounds this year.
The share of days with good air quality in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei rose by 14.6 percentage points from a year earlier to 66.3 percent in March, even though the share declined in the first quarter, MEP data showed.
