The Chinese government continued to increase its efforts to combat environmental violations in 2016 with a total number of 137.8 thousand cases investigated and fines totaled 6.633 billion yuan on 124.7 thousand cases, a record high according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
The total fines amount increased by 56% while the number of cases punished had an increase of 28%. Guangdong, Beijing, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang each had over 10,000 penalty cases; and, over 20 areas each received total fines of over 100 million yuan.
The implementation of the close-down and seizure saw 9,976 cases, an increase of 138%; the implementation of limited or stopping production had a total of 5,673 cases, an increase of 83%; 4,041 cases were transferred to administrative detention, an increase of 94%; 2,023 criminal cases were transferred for suspected of being involved in environmental pollutions, up 20%.