China environmental counterattack

China warned it will impose equally harsh penalties on domestic and foreign companies after finding two overseas firms violating environmental rules in a random inspection. The inspection found earlier this year that Unilever China and the China branch of Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. were discharging wastewater with higher chemical content than permitted. Unilever's plant in Hefei in the eastern province of Anhui was fined 100,000 yuan (13,300 dollars) and ordered to cut production to reduce discharge. It has also paid nearly 50,000 yuan for excessive discharge.

This warning was likely to be driven by rising domestic concerns that foreign polluting industries were finding their way to China, thanks to lower costs and the country's pressing need to create jobs.