Photo: Phototex
"Unspoken Rules" of Environment Protection  
A surge in Chinese officials imprisoned for bribery has shed light on the dark underbelly of China's environmental protection apparatus. Wang Yongping, a coalmine businessman, told the Economic Observer that because coal production was a high energy consumption, high pollution business, he had to seek an agent to work on his behalf, usually a friend or mistress of a key environmental official, to grease the wheels. Such unspoken rules had become institutionalized in Shanxi, he said.