The Ministry of Environmental Protection has said in a statement that China dealt with over 73,000 environmental violation cases in 2014, a year-on-year increase of 10 percent.
Fines imposed on violators implicated in these cases totaled more than 3.16 billion yuan, or about 510 million U.S. dollars, up 34.4 percent from 2013. Sentencing in 81 percent of these cases was passed. Guangdong in south China and Zhejiang in the east, both economically advanced coastal provinces, reported more than 10,000 administrative cases each.
The ministry warned that any regions that were late declaring their violation cases or their law enforcement actions were proven to be ineffective would face questioning and possibly punishment.