Top court issues guideline to protect Yellow River basin

China's top court called for courts along the Yellow River to provide stronger legal protection for the basin's environment and ecology, with harsher punishments to polluters.

The Supreme People's Court issued a guideline on improving legal services and protection for the river basin's environment and development on Friday, in which, it demanded courts along the river to fight pollution-related crimes and solve disputes related to industrial upgrading or transformation by efficient and effective case hearings.

The guideline aims to carry out the central leadership's requirements on strengthening environmental and ecological protection for the river basin as well as boosting the regional economic and social development, Tao Kaiyua, vice-president of the top court, said.

While increasing the criminal punishments to deter polluters, the guideline with 18 articles also ordered courts along the river to pay higher attention to hearing disputes on local livelihood, finance, intellectual property rights and enterprise bankruptcy, Tao said, adding the aim is to build a sound business environment for the basin and promote the regional high-quality development.

Meanwhile, courts in seven provinces and two autonomous regions along the river will also provide more legal support to government agencies that play their role in preventing the environment from being polluted and take measures to increase supervision, she said.

Considering rich cultures along the river basin, those destroying cultural relics or historical sites will be harshly punished, according to the guideline.