Chinese authorities yesterday gave non-governmental organizations (NGO) more power to sue those that flout environmental protection laws, the nation’s highest court said, as Beijing steps up efforts to curb pollution that regularly chokes major cities.
NGOs that work to fight polluters judicially will gain special status and have court fees reduced, the Chinese Supreme People’s Court said on its Web site.
They will also be allowed to sue firms or individuals across China, regardless of where the NGO is based.
The new rules came into force yesterday, the court said, adding that they were issued “in response to questions on the matter.”
A side effect of the nation’s meteoric economic rise of recent decades has been severe pollution in major cities, leading to increased public dissatisfaction that has unnerved the Chinese Communist Party.
Recent studies have shown that roughly two-thirds of China’s soil is estimated to be polluted and that 60 percent of underground water is too contaminated to drink.
China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases and many firms cut regulatory corners in the face of corruption and politically weak local environmental protection agencies.
However, despite the increased opportunities for NGOs, they face intense government scrutiny in China and those that run afoul of the authorities can be shuttered.
China’s legislature is considering a bill that would increase oversight of foreign NGOs looking to operate in the country, Xinhua news agency reported last month.
Charges of “illegal fund-raising” are frequently used to shut businesses that authorities deem politically inconvenient.
However, there are signs that the government is willing to accommodate lawsuits brought by environmental NGOs.
Last month, six Chinese firms were fined 160 million yuan (US$26 million) after being sued by a local environmental NGO for discharging waste chemicals into rivers.
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
RSS