China Environmental Law

We wrote about the arsenic pollution in Kunming’s Yangzonghai Lake last September.  The source of the arsenic was the Yunnan Chengjiang Jinye Corporation, a particularly recalcitrant polluter.  The company had been fined six times between 2002 and 2008 for environmental pollution, but as a news report at the time noted “[a]lthough the maximum fine of 100,000 yuan (US$14,653.52) has been imposed several times, the sum is trivial in comparison to the company’s profits.”

We noted that this wasn’t a case of turning a blind eye to polluters, it was a failure of the regulatory system to provide sufficient disincentives to pollution.  In other words, the lake is polluted with arsenic because even maximum penalty amounts are so “trivial” that it makes economic sense to “pay to pollute.”  MEP’s announced intention to treat each day of non-compliance in certain situations as a separate violation (assuming it can convince the courts to adopt its approach) may have some effect in raising the cost of non-compliance. 

Throwing more polluters in jail may also increase compliance rates.  Thus we were glad to learn that three executives of the Yunnan Chengjiang Jinye Corporation-the CEO, the General Manager, and the person in charge of production-began trial on criminal charges yesterday.  Given the cost of remediating the arsenic in the lake, I suspect that all the defendants could face up to seven years in prison.

According to Xinhua, the “trial will last three or four days, said an official with the court, who didn’t disclose date of the sentence.”  Xinhua is obviously expecting a conviction, since there would not be a sentencing date without one, but in fairness with the total contempt for the law apparently displayed in this case, a conviction would seem likely.  We’ve got a reporter stationed outside the courthouse ‘round the clock, and will bring you news of the trial results as soon as they are announced.