Over 59,000 Individuals Approved for Arrest by Nationwide Prosecutorial Organs for Environmental Offenses in Five Years

On November 20, the National Conference on Criminal Prosecution Work of Procuratorates was held in Fuzhou, Fujian. According to The Paper’s understanding from the conference, from 2019 to 2023, procuratorates across the country severely punished crimes that undermine environmental and resource protection in accordance with the law, approving the arrest of over 59,000 individuals involved in over 36,000 cases of such crimes, and initiating prosecutions against over 225,000 individuals involved in over 133,000 cases.
“We have focused on issues related to the protection, development, and utilization of ecological and environmental resources, such as illegal mining of lithium, illegal sand mining, and illegal fishing, and carried out eight special operations in conjunction with relevant departments; we have issued the ‘Guidance on Handling Evidence in Criminal Cases Related to Sand at Sea’ jointly with the Ministry of Public Security and China Coast Guard, and released five batches of 22 typical cases, and listed three batches of 22 cases involving illegal lithium mining in Jiangxi for supervision; we have also issued the ‘Guiding Opinions on Punishing Illegal Wildlife Trading Crimes According to Law’ jointly with the Supreme People’s Court and the Ministry of Public Security, and severely punished crimes that undermine the ecological environment of the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins in accordance with the law,” said the head of the General Crime Prosecution Department of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.
Fighting the battle to prevent and control pollution is a crucial task for continuously improving ecological and environmental quality and building a beautiful China. It is reported that from 2019 to 2023, procuratorates across the country initiated prosecutions against over 26,000 individuals involved in over 10,000 cases of environmental pollution crimes, representing an increase of 8.3% and 23.1% respectively compared to the previous five years; they issued the ‘Summary of Talks on Issues Related to Handling Criminal Cases of Environmental Pollution’ jointly with the Supreme People’s Court, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and carried out special operations for three consecutive years to combat crimes related to hazardous waste and environmental violations, as well as fraud involving automatic monitoring data of key pollutant discharge units, severely prosecuting crimes such as illegal dumping of hazardous waste and smuggling of “foreign waste”, and handled the first case of providing false documents, achieving good results in case handling.
Farmland protection is crucial for food security, ecological security, and social stability. From 2019 to 2023, procuratorates across the country severely punished crimes of illegal occupation of agricultural land, initiating prosecutions against over 22,000 individuals involved in over 16,000 such cases. In response to the persistent problem of illegal occupation of agricultural land, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate organized 11 provincial procuratorates to carry out special supervision activities on illegal land occupation, and signed relevant opinions on strengthening farmland protection with 15 units including the Ministry of Natural Resources, resolutely curbing new criminal acts of illegally occupying farmland for construction.