Chinese procuratorates initiate over 200,000 public interest cases

BEIJING - Chinese procuratorates had instituted 204,446 cases of public interest litigation and filed 5,911 related legal proceedings by the end of August, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said Thursday.

Procuratorates at all levels nationwide began comprehensively handling public interest litigation cases in July 2017, involving issues of ecological and environmental protection, resource conservation, food and drug safety, state property protection and other fields of public interest.

Steady efforts have been made to deal with cases involving polluted water management, heavy metals emissions, solid and household waste disposal as well as radiochemicals management, said Zhang Xueqiao, deputy procurator-general of the SPP, at a press conference.

A total of 112,250 cases in these areas have been handled by the end of August, accounting for about 55 percent of the total, Zhang said.

Under the supervision of procuratorates, more than 3 million mu (about 200,000 hectares) of damaged arable lands, forests, wetlands and grasslands have been restored, and more than 28.4 million tonnes of garbage and solid waste have been retrieved or cleaned up, Zhang added.