The public is losing trust in facts and figures used by environmental protection authorities and their trust must be won back, said an article in Beijing Youth Daily (excerpts below).

Zhou Shengxian, the environment minister, told the media that citizens have a different view of official environmental statistics.

In recent years, the environment has become a crucial issue in China.

Local environmental protection authorities lack effective supervision and always ignore enterprises discharging pollution for economic interests and GDP growth.

The public is losing confidence in their work. If environmental protection authorities really want to win public trust back, they should take action to effectively curb pollutions.