Two subsidiary iron-ore firms of China Minmetals Corporation's have been disposing waste water without treatment and contaminating farmlands in Wuan, Hebei province, for years, but its illegal act has come to light only now. The firms could do so because of the influence of their parent firm, says an article in China Youth Daily. Excerpts:

For years, waste water from two subsidiary iron-ore firms of China Minmetals Corporation (CMC) have seriously contaminated farmlands in Wuan, Hebei province. The situation hasn't improved, even though local residents' have been appealing constantly to the higher authorities. Court cases, too, haven't helped matters.

True, the two subsidiaries have harmed the reputation of their parent firm, CMC. But they were allowed to have a free run only because they were subsidiaries of CMC, a central government enterprise.

Such things are not new because subsidiary companies of central government enterprises have been breaking the law for some time now.

Usually, central enterprises' administrative levels are higher than that of local authorities, giving them more political power. As a result, local supervisory boards and judicial organs cannot punish them or their officials even if they break the law. Free of local governments' supervision, such central enterprises at times act like despots.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and the National Development and Reform Commission should have been monitoring central enterprises' operations and pulling them up for wrongful acts. Yet the Wuan case shows they haven't.

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