China's environmental violation cases decline

China has witnessed a decline in environmental penalty cases since 2018, driven by the rigorous enforcement of the 2015 version of the country's Environmental Protection Law, which is renowned for its stringent provisions, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Dubbed by national authorities as a "law with real teeth", the revised legislation has incorporated four punitive actions to combat environmental infractions — levying fines consecutively on a daily basis, implementing asset sealing and seizure, restricting and suspending production and enforcing detentions.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Zhao Qunying, head of the ministry's law enforcement bureau, said that to date, environmental law enforcement officers across the country have handled 190,000 cases related to these measures and criminal offenses according to the revised law since 2015.

Additionally, they have processed roughly 1.3 million cases concerning environmental administrative penalties, with a total fine amounting to about 86 billion yuan ($11.8 billion), he added.

Zhao highlighted the role of the revised law in deterring environmental violations.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), environmental enforcement personnel handled a total of 833,000 environmental penalty cases of different types, marking a 1.4-fold increase from the previous five years.

"Since 2018, with even more rigorous enforcement of the Environmental Protection Law, there has been a notable rise in consciousness regarding environmental compliance across all sectors of society, and companies have been consistently ramping up their environmental governance efforts."

"This has resulted in a decline in environmental penalty cases," he said.

In 2023, environmental penalties were imposed in more than 80,000 cases across the country, down by 66 percent from 2017, which saw the number of such cases peak, the official stated.