IN BRIEF (Page 3)

Pollution

Change to law would help in suing polluters

A proposed draft amendment to the Environmental Protection Law would make it easier for agencies to file public interest lawsuits against polluters.

Environmental agencies that have registered with the Ministry of Civil Affairs for five years running and are deemed to have a good reputation will be able to file lawsuits against polluters.

The amendment, if approved, would be a major change to the law. Previously, only the All-China Environmental Federation was allowed to file public interest lawsuits.

According to the National People's Congress Standing Committee, 13 agencies would be qualified to file a lawsuit if the amendment became law immediately.

The amendment could address concerns that the federation may not be capable of filing lawsuits across the country because of its limited staffing and financial resources.

Zhou Ke, an environmental protection law professor at Renmin University of China, said there is a lot of controversy surrounding the new drafts to the environment law, the third so far. A fourth draft is expected soon. But among the draft amendments, the stipulation that determines who is qualified to file a lawsuit against polluters is the most contentious.

Shanghai to reduce smog levels by 2017

Shanghai unveiled its Clean Air Action Plan on Oct 18, which aims to reduce the concentration of dangerous PM2.5 particulates by 20 percent to the 2012 level by 2017.

The plan, introduced in China's most populous city with nearly 24 million residents including 173,000 foreigners, included targets for pollution prevention in six sectors - energy, industry, transport, construction, agriculture and social life.

"The frequency of heavy pollution will be significantly reduced by 2017. The air quality will better meet residents' expectations as well as the general qualifications of building an international metropolis," said Wu Qizhou, deputy director of the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau.

One of the highlighted measures in the Shanghai plan is banning coal burning, Wu said. More than 2,500 boilers and 300 industrial furnaces that use coal will be closed down or changed to clean energy by 2015. Coal burning will be completely banned in 2017, the plan said.

Law

Extradition deal key to catching fugitives

Signing an extradition treaty with the United States is essential to China's continuing efforts to capture and repatriate economic fugitives, a senior security official has said.

Yet experts on both sides said an agreement may be unlikely in the short term, as obstacles and misunderstandings remain over China's judicial system and progress in human rights protection.

According to China's Ministry of Public Security, at least 150 Chinese economic fugitives, many of them corrupt officials, are hiding in the US.

Over the past 10 years, however, just two people wanted on criminal charges have been repatriated.

"We face practical difficulties in getting back fugitives who have escaped to the US due to the lack of an extradition treaty, as well as the complex and lengthy US legal procedures," said Liao Jinrong, director of the ministry's international cooperation bureau.

Some progress has been made in judicial cooperation in recent years, but it has been slow and is still far from enough, he said.

Dialogue

Public diplomacy may ease strained ties

Experts from China and Japan are calling for "constructive" grassroots dialogues to inspire the two governments to repair strained relations.

They made the remarks of public diplomatic activities following a yearlong political stagnation that developed after the Japanese government announced it would "nationalize" China's Diaoyu Islands.

The diplomatic impasse, focusing on territorial disputes and historical issues concerning Japan's wartime brutality, has been intensified by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's right-wing political and military policies.

The visits by more than 160 Japanese lawmakers and several Cabinet members recently to the Yasukuni Shrine - seen as a symbol of Japan's militarism, as it honors several war criminals - caused the latest friction.

China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 10/25/2013 page3)