BEIJING: From January to June this year, Chinese prosecutors prosecuted 1,597 people in 668 cases on charges of environmental pollution crimes.
Prosecution offices have adhered to a human-centered philosophy in handling relevant cases and adopted a strict approach to punishing such crimes, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) said on Monday.
The statement said the prosecution’s efforts are more focused on restoration and remediation in relevant cases, which helps strengthen the environmental management system and the quality of the ecological environment.
However, there are some significant challenges in the sector, he said. Illegal discharge of pollutants in traditional heavily polluting industries is a serious problem, as are interregional acts of illegal disposal of hazardous waste and falsification of automatic monitoring data.
The statement goes on to say that some third-party service agencies in the sector are helping to conceal the facts of the breach.
The SPP emphasized that everyone is involved in the effort to protect the environment and those who commit crimes related to pollution will be held accountable in accordance with the law. It also called on businesses and citizens to adopt an environmentally friendly approach to production and lifestyle, as well as to stop, detect or report pollution violations in a timely manner.
