China promotes environmental protection through public interest litigation

Chinese prosecution organs put 6,335 public interest litigation cases involving ecological protection on file from last July to January, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said in a press release Friday.

Prosecution organs oversaw more than 1,400 enterprises rectify illegal activities and restored over 280 square kilometers of polluted water, according to the SPP.

A contaminated river. [File photo: Chinanews.com]

"A total of 10,565 public interest litigation cases were filed from last July to January and prosecution organs at all levels paid close attention to cases on environmental and resource protection as well as food and drug safety," said Zhang Xueqiao, deputy procurator-general of the SPP. 

"Public interest litigation also helped prosecution organs to recover economic losses of more than 87 billion yuan (13.7 billion U.S. dollars) as of January, the SPP said.