China held 289 officials accountable for environmental protection problems discovered during the third round of the country's high-profile central inspection drive focusing on ecological and environmental protection, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said Thursday.

From November 2023 to the end of last year, the inspection teams investigated the first batch of five provinces namely Fujian, Henan, Hainan, Gansu and Qinghai.

During this period, the inspectors accepted 16,700 reports from the public and uncovered a slew of problems, including inadequate implementation of measures and an unacceptably slow pace of improvement in terms of strengthening environmental protection.

The inspection teams publicly exposed 25 typical cases and summoned 623 officials from the five provinces for talks.