China's top environmental authority is flexing its muscles to take on polluting companies through more inspections and law enforcement. Fines levied on violators have soared in the past six months.

As of July 6, nearly two-thirds of 32,004 companies inspected in 28 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as well as neighboring regions, had committed various violations, according to the latest information from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, including excessive emissions and installing insufficient pollution control equipment.

The teams conducting the yearlong inspections - which began in early April and are the most thorough to be launched by the ministry - found that 6,662 companies with no operating licenses had polluted the environment severely.