Cracking down on environment-related offences pays off

BEIJING -- China's efforts to severely punish environment-related offences and those threatening food and drug safety are paying off, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said Wednesday.

A two-year campaign was launched in January 2017, under which procuratorates nationwide were urged to carry out supervision over handling of cases involving crimes of damaging environmental resources and food and drug safety.

In 2017, a total of 5,015 criminal cases were transferred to police by administrative agencies upon suggestions from procuratorates, up 39 percent from 2016, according to the SPP.

These cases involved 6,165 suspects, 40 percent more than the previous year, the SPP said.

Among the 5,015 criminal cases, 3,104 were related to environmental resources, and 1,911 were related to food and drug safety.

The procuratorates have approved the arrest of 1,299 suspects in 997 cases and prosecuted 4,500 suspects in 3,226 cases. The courts have convicted 3,918 suspects in 2,978 cases.