China imposes greater fines for environmental violations
政府对污染企业开出巨额罚单

The Ministry of Environmental Protection has said in a statement that China dealt with more than 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 (about US$510 million), 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 if any regions were late declaring their violation cases or had law enforcement actions that were proven to be ineffective, they would face questioning and possibly punishment.