Policy Digest

SPP handling more public interest litigation

Over the past three years, procuratorial organs in China have filed 365,000 public interest litigation cases related to the protection of the environment and natural resources, as well as food and drug safety, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

The spate of filings was the result of a three-year campaign launched by the SPP in 2020 that aimed to ensure people's well-being through public interest litigation, the SPP said at a news conference on Aug 17.

In terms of environmental protection, the cases involved subjects such as forest pests, rare bird species, endangered plants, cultural relics and natural heritages.

As a result of the cases, about 73,200 hectares of damaged water supply areas have been restored, 33,546 hectares of polluted waters have been cleaned and more than 7.1 million metric tons of household waste have been cleared. Meanwhile, about 787,000 kilograms of counterfeit and poor-quality food have been confiscated, the SPP said.

Recycling of new-energy equipment promoted

Authorities have released guidelines to promote the recycling of decommissioned wind-power and photovoltaic equipment, said the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's economic planner, on Aug 17.

The guidelines state that the country will actively build a recycling system for wind-power and photovoltaic equipment. The system will ensure the equipment will remain eco-friendly and be either refurbished for continuous use or disposed of in a green manner.

China's new-energy industry has developed rapidly, and its installed capacity of wind and photovoltaic power ranks first in the world, according to the NDRC. With the acceleration of industrial upgrading and the refurbishment of traditional energy equipment, new-energy equipment will face the problem of being decommissioned on a large scale.

By the end of April this year, China's installed capacity of wind power reached 380 million kilowatts, while the installed capacity of photovoltaic power came in at 440 million kW. Combined, the two accounted for 30.9 percent of the country's installed power generation capacity, official data shows.

Language protection project shows sign of success

A Chinese language resource protection project launched in 2015 has seen research and protection work completed at over 1,700 sites during the project's first phase, covering more than 120 languages and dialects in the country, the Ministry of Education said on Aug 16 at a news conference in Henan province.

A series of books about the languages and dialects of ethnic minorities and in various Chinese regions, as well as related cultural phenomena, has been published as part of the project, said Tian Lixin, head of the ministry's department of language information management. The project concluded its first phase in 2019 and started its second phase in 2021.

China Daily - Xinhua