BEIJING: Chinese authorities have since 2018 investigated an increasing number of criminal cases related to environmental pollution, China’s top procuratorate said. Between January 2018 and August this year, procuratorate agencies have approved the arrests of 9,517 individuals in 5,364 cases nationwide for pollution-related crimes, representing a rough increase of 80 percent and 64.5 percent, respectively, from the same period spanning 2015-2017, said the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP). The SPP made four typical cases public to show how local law enforcement departments and juridical departments dealt with the crimes. One of the cases occurred in Zhejiang Province in March. A local branch of a city environment bureau in the province received complaints about a platy stripping plant on March 24. After arriving there, law enforcement officials found a 30-square-meter water-collecting sump with black sewage that was emitting an acidic smell. The black sewage flowed along a mud ditch and entered a river. Officials sealed off the scene the same day. On the next day they collected samples of water from the sump and the bank of the river.
Both results showed that the total values of copper, nickel, zinc and chromium content greatly exceeded the industry standard.
–The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item
