Beijing wants to stop the pollution and is trying to bypass its bureaucracy to do it

Provincial authorities are responsible for enforcing the laws Beijing pass, but they're too comfortable with the tax revenue from polluters to get serious. So, NGOs have been aggressively advocating laws for greater transparency and accountability, and Beijing seems to be complying. People getting their say in communist China? Times sure do change.
A separate top-down measure here to deny loans to heavy polluters.