The Supreme People's Court (SPC), China's top court, issued a directive on punishing the crime of the illegal mining of mineral resources, as part of its efforts to safeguard the security of mineral resources and the ecological environment.

According to the directive, courts are required to adopt the most stringent system and strictest rule of law to build a judicial shield for the security of the environment. They are also expected to be fully aware of the social impact of the crime of illegal mining, and to trial those cases in strict accordance with the law to achieve consistency in political, legal, social and ecological perspectives. Courts need to uphold the basic principles of the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law, implement the criminal policy of tempering justice with mercy, as well as the green principle and the principle of damage liabilities in full compensation in the Civil Code. They also need to focus on exploring and applying preventative and restorative judicial rules to support and guarantee the  administration and law enforcement of the competent authorities. More attention needs to be focused on cracking down on gang crimes and their protective umbrellas, and illegal mining in areas within the ecological protection red lines, major river basins and black soil conservation areas, as well as in no-mining areas or during the no-mining period, and illegal mining of strategically scarce mineral resources, will be severely punished.

The directive requires correct understanding of the stipulations in the judicial interpretation on the application of law in handling criminal cases of illegal mining and destructive mining. It also requires courts to consider the circumstances of the crimes, to accurately adopt the value determination rules for mineral products, and to strengthen the disposal of properties involved, in order to impose proper penalties. Pecuniary penalties and probation should be applied appropriately, and determination of joint offenses need to be accurate. The ecological impact of the case needs to be fully considered, and cases of civil public interest litigation incidental to ecological environment protection need to be properly handled to encourage the offenders to voluntarily  assume their civil liabilities.  

The directive also stresses the need to improve the mechanism of effective punishment for illegal mining where system integration, interdepartmental coordination, informatization construction and legal publicity need to be advanced.