In the upcoming restructuring of China's central government, the State Environmental Protection Administration will become one of the very few national agencies that actually expand. SEPA will upgrade to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Jing Hua Times reported.

Wang Yuqing, former deputy chief of SEPA, said March 9 that the agency will also strengthen its personnel, functions and national network.

China is taking action to consolidate its bureaucracy by streamlining regulators. Basically, agencies, administrations, bureaus will be combined into a smaller number of more powerful ministries.

If anything, the increasingly prominent status of SEPA reflects the growing awareness of environmental protection among Chinese citizens and lawmakers.

But China's SEPA is still very small compared to its U.S. counterpart. Compared to SEPA's staff of 300 (excluding affiliated institutions), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employs about 18,000 with an annual budget of about $7 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.