In a 143 page report outlining a "battleplan" to fight winter smog  released on August 24, 2017, and available on its website, China's Ministry of Environmental Protection said China has pledged to cut average concentrations of airborne particles known as PM2.5 by more than 15 percent year-on-year in the winter months in 28 northern cities to meet key smog targets. It said the new target, for the October to March period, would apply to Beijing and Tianjin, along with 26 other cities in the smog-prone provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and Henan.

China's Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) announced in a notice issued on August  that it has launched 8000 water clean-up project as part of a 2015 action plan to treat and prevent water pollution, and cover 325 contaminated groundwater sites across the country.