China's high-profile central environmental inspection has dispatched teams to five provincial regions and three centrally administrated State-owned companies for a month-long inspection, according to a media release from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Mainly targeting environmental violations in the Yellow River Basin, inspectors arrived at Shanxi, Shandong and Shaanxi provinces, as well as Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions on Monday, said the ministry, where an office of the central leading group for the inspection is set.

Teams with the inspection are usually headed by ministerial-level officials.

China Huaneng Group Co Ltd, China Datang Corporation Ltd and the State Power Investment Corporation Ltd will also be included in the fourth batch of entities; these were covered in the third round of the inspection.

China launched a pilot of the central environmental inspection mechanism between late 2015 and February 2016. The first full round of inspections began soon after and covered all provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland by the end of 2017.

The third round of the inspection commenced in late 2023.