China's rapid industrialization has substantially increased pollution. China has some relevant regulations: the 1979 Environmental Protection Law, which was largely modeled on U.S. legislation, but the environment continues to deteriorate.<ref name="Ma-Ortolano">{{cite book|author1=Ma, Xiaoying |author2=Ortalano, Leonard |lastauthorampname-list-style=yesamp |title=Environmental Regulation in China: institutions, enforcement and compliance|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2000|isbn=0-8476-9398-8}}</ref> Twelve years after the law, only one Chinese city was making an effort to clean up its water discharges.<ref name="Sinkule">{{cite book|author1=Sinkule, Barbara J.|author2=Ortolana, Leonard|lastauthorampname-list-style=yesamp|title=Implementing Environmental Policy in China|publisher=Praeger Publishers|year=1995|isbn=0-275-94980-X|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/implementingenvi0000sink}}</ref> This indicates that China is about 30 years behind the U.S. schedule of environmental regulation and 10 to 20 years behind Europe. In July 2007, it was reported that the [[World Bank]] reluctantly censored a report revealing that 750,000 people in China die every year as a result of pollution-related diseases. China's State Environment Protection Agency and the [[Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China|Health Ministry]] asked the World Bank to cut the calculations of premature deaths from the report fearing the revelation would provoke "social unrest".<ref>Mary-Anne Toy,[http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/china-covers-up-pollution-deaths/2007/07/04/1183351291152.html China covers up pollution deaths] The Age Company (Australia), July 5, 2007, retrieved 13 July 2018</ref>
