Government agencies the target of 787,000 public interest cases

There were 787,000 public interest cases brought against poorly performing government agencies in China over the past six years, with about half concerning the protection of State-owned property or the transfer of State-owned land use rights.

From July 2017 to June this year, Chinese prosecutors filed more than 875,000 public interest cases, with 787,000 of them against government departments with poor compliance with laws, according to data released by the country's top judicial authorities on Wednesday.

Under judicial oversight, many departments corrected their mistakes, which led up to more than 49 million metric tons of waste being recycled or cleaned up and the restoration of 536,000 hectares of damaged lands, forests, wetlands and grasslands, the data showed.

Public interest litigation has not only played a big role in environmental conservation, but also in protecting the legitimate rights of women, children, heroes and martyrs, Geng Baojian, an official from the Supreme People's Court, said.

It has also contributed to ensuring food safety, the preservation of cultural relics and personal information protection, he added.

Prosecutors can file lawsuits against poorly performing government agencies in accordance with a 2017 revision to the Administrative Procedure Law.

At first, prosecutors could only initiate public interest litigation in four areas: environmental conservation, food and drug safety, State-asset preservation and land-rights transfers.

Since 2018, more fields have been added, including the protection of the rights of heroes, martyrs and juveniles, as well as cases involving personal information, telecom fraud, monopolies and the quality and safety of agricultural products.

Xu Xiangchun, an official from the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said such litigation had encouraged government agencies to strictly comply with laws and better perform their duties.

He said a special law on public interest litigation is being considered to help advance law-based governance.