BEIJING - China's procuratorates have instituted 4,597 public interest litigation cases and filed 40 public interest litigation cases to courts from July to October, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP).

They also handled 4,026 pre-litigation cases, including both civil and administrative cases. Among these cases, 2,653 cases are related to environment and resources protection, 326 are about the use of public lands, 880 are about public assets protection, and 167 are on food and drug safety, the SPP said.

China's top legislature passed the amendments to the Civil Procedure Law and the Administrative Procedure Law in late June, allowing prosecutors nationwide to act as plaintiffs and launch litigation against any act directly or indirectly compromises public rights and interest.

The amendments, taking effect on July 1, mainly target government offenses related to the four aforementioned areas.

In July 2015, the SPP began a two-year pilot program allowing prosecutors in 13 provincial divisions to institute public interest litigation in administrative and civil cases.