China amends the “Marine Environment Protection Law” to strengthen marine pollution management

On October 24, 2023, China published the amended “Marine Environment Protection Law”. The amended law will come into force on January 1, 2024. The “Marine Environment Protection Law” was first published in 1982 and has been amended for five times since then. The main reason for the amendment is that the current law can no longer adapt to the new developments brought by the accelerated construction of ecological civilization.