Chinese courts conclude over 700,000 environmental, resource cases in past 3 years

BEIJING -- Chinese courts nationwide concluded more than 700,000 environmental and resource cases over the past three years, according to a Supreme People's Court (SPC) work conference on Friday.

By the end of November, 2,149 judicial organs for environmental and resource cases had been established by courts across the country, the SPC said.

Courts at all levels have ramped up their judicial protection of the ecological environment, wildlife, and natural and cultural relics, and concluded a number of consequential and typical cases, said Yang Linping, vice president of the SPC.

According to SPC statistics, 100,300 criminal cases and 479,206 civil cases related to environmental and resource violations had been concluded between January 2019 and November 2021.

Since 2019, China has seen improved rules on the judicial protection of the environment, with an adjudication system for environmental and resource cases established and a trans-regional judicial coordination mechanism enhanced, according to the conference.