Red line drawn for land reclamation

CHINA HAS INTRODUCED its toughest regulation on land reclamation along the country's coastline, vowing to demolish illegally reclaimed land and stop approving general reclamation projects. Xinhua News Agency comments:

The national inspections of six coastal provinces and regions, including Liaoning and Hainan provinces, have exposed the common problem of illegal land reclamation, which has resulted in many ecological and environmental problems in the coastal waters.

With the rapid economic development of the coastal regions, the land available for development is in high demand and land prices have soared. This has led to illegal, large-scale land reclamation for short-term interests, which not only wastes the oceanic resources, but also causes tremendous damage to the marine environment.