Public interest lawsuits to grow over pollution, food and drugs

A pilot program that allows prosecutors to file public interest lawsuits has been a great help in protecting the public's rights in environmental and food and drug safety issues, and the top procuratorate is moving to make the practice into law, the country's procurator-general said.

Between July 2015 and the end of February, prosecutors handled 5,109 such cases and filed 547 public interest lawsuits. That helped restore 128,000 hectares of polluted farmland, forests and grassland, and forced 443 companies operating illegally to pay compensation of about 200 million yuan ($28.9 million), according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

"Such a pilot program has effectively prevented State and social public interests from being harmed," Cao Jianming, procurator-general of the SPP, told China Daily in an exclusive interview.