China's procuratorial authorities have in recent years strengthened the precision and standardization of public interest litigation, tackling complex cases involving multiple responsible parties, unclear liabilities and difficulties in accountability, a senior prosecutor said.

Through comprehensive investigations, prosecutors accurately identify substantive legal relationships and decide whether to initiate administrative or civil public interest litigation based on the specifics of each case, urging administrative authorities to fulfill their duties and ensuring that lawbreakers are held accountable, said Xu Xiangchun, head of the public interest litigation department of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Xu said procuratorial authorities are also actively practicing restorative justice, focusing on systemic, comprehensive and source-based governance. By appropriately applying evidentiary rules and damage assessment methods in public interest litigation, they provide comprehensive and in-depth protection of national and social public interests.

On Tuesday, the SPP released a batch of guiding cases highlighting the rigid supervisory function of litigation. Key elements — including qualified plaintiffs, unlawful conduct, harm to the public interest and explicit legal authorization — are strictly examined to ensure cases can be filed and adjudicated effectively, providing replicable standards for judicial practice.

In Hunan province's Huayuan county, a mineral-rich region, decades of intensive mining activities caused severe ecological damage. Overlapping administrative responsibilities complicated accountability.

As a result, the provincial procuratorate launched a coordinated investigation in 2022. Procuratorates at three levels filed 61 cases involving local governments and 10 functional departments. Following 27 procuratorial recommendations, authorities carried out systematic remediation, addressing pollution at wastewater treatment companies, tailings ponds and abandoned sites, and recovering more than 92 million yuan ($12.8 million) in remediation funds.

When a mining company refused to rectify problems and local authorities failed to act, prosecutors filed a public interest lawsuit. Courts ordered the return of illegally occupied land and imposed penalties. Civil public interest litigation was also initiated against companies discharging manganese-contaminated wastewater above standards, with courts ordering joint compensation for ecological damage.

Xu described the case as not merely addressing a single instance of pollution but tackling decades of systemic ecological harm across an entire region and industry.

As China advances ecological civilization, systematic governance of mining pollution in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is particularly important, he said, noting that the Hunan case offers a replicable "procuratorial solution" for similar regions nationwide.

He said public interest litigation supervision has fostered a new model of coordinated governance between judicial and administrative powers. By urging administrative bodies to fulfill their duties and guiding industries to operate in compliance with the law, the system has helped shift from handling individual cases to improving governance across entire sectors.

In October 2025, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress conducted the first review of a draft law on procuratorial public interest litigation. The SPP said the newly released cases align closely with legislative priorities, covering issues such as administrative nonperformance, coordination between public interest litigation and ecological damage compensation mechanisms, and clarification of multiparty responsibilities, offering practical references for improving the draft law.

Looking ahead, the SPP said it will guide provincial procuratorates to analyze case structures across all statutory public interest litigation fields, strengthen weak areas and promote high-quality case handling.

This year, the SPP and provincial procuratorates will take the lead in handling a number of exemplary cases. The SPP will also step up coordination with legislative bodies, revise relevant judicial interpretations and improve supporting mechanisms.

It will refine case-filing and case-closing standards, establish quality benchmarks for public interest litigation cases and issue further guidelines to ensure full coverage across all statutory areas.

yangzekun@chinadaily.com.cn