China's Environmental Legislation and Enforcement

Xie Dong, EHS Counsel, General Electric, China

After 30 year's fast growth of economy, China is facing unprecedented challenges brought by environmental pollution and ecology deterioration. In recent years, China's environmental legislation and enforcement are becoming core content of the major considerations during the establishment and operation of businesses in China. To help readers to gain a better understanding of China's environmental law system, the article briefly reviews China's environmental legislation history after 1979. This article then introduces major currently-effective environmental laws and basic legal mechanisms created by these laws that might impact an industrial facility from its initial establishment to daily operation. Environmental enforcement system, mainly focusing on the Ministry of Environmental Protection and its local counterparts, will also be discussed to help the reader understand how the laws-on-the-paper are implemented across China.