China logs over 151,000 public interest lawsuits in 2020

BEIJING -- Chinese prosecutors handled a total of 151,260 public interest lawsuits in 2020, according to statistics released by the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP).

The cases covered areas including wildlife protection, cultural heritage conservation, live-streaming sales and food and drug safety, the SPP said.

China will improve the public interest litigation system for ecological and environmental protection, and explore a punitive compensation mechanism for civil public interest lawsuits involving food safety, as proposed in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025).

In the next few years, prosecutors will step up efforts to deal with public interest litigation cases concerning public security, workplace safety, public health, bio-security and personal data protection, among other areas, SPP official Hu Weilie said.