China has attached great importance to legislation on environmental protection. The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China states clearly that “The State protects and improves the environment in which people live and the ecological environment. It prevents and controls pollution and other public hazards.” What is more, in the Criminal Law, severely harming the natural environment and destroying wild animal and plant resources are regarded as crimes of endangering public security and undermining the socialist economic order. In 1973, the first environmental standard—the “Trial Standard of Industrial ‘Three Wastes’ Discharge” was formulated. In 1979, China passed its first environmental protection law—The Environment Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China (Trial). Ten years later, a formal Environment Protection Law was promulgated, setting out provisions for protecting and improving the environment, preventing and controlling pollution, issuing state environment standards, and moving towards an environmental protection legal system with Chinese characteristics.