China’s customs authorities will launch a year-long smuggling crackdown prioritizing in imported garbage and natural products.

Industrial waste, electronic scrap and plastics will be in the cross hairs of the watchdogs, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said on Tuesday.

Those convicted of smuggling could face a maximum penalty of the death sentence, according to China’s Criminal Law.

The counter-smuggling efforts will target gangs and well-organized operations acting illegally, GAC said.

Customs investigated 2,633 smuggling cases in 2016, up 17 percent year on year, according to the GAC.

In December 2016, Shanghai customs authorities seized 3.1 tonnes of pangolin scales in the biggest smuggling case of its kind to date.

The scales, worth over 10 million yuan (1.45 million U.S. dollars), were reportedly bought from Nigeria. The trade in pangolin is banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

China’s top court promises to ensure judges properly exert their judicial power without interference.

The Supreme People’s Court on Tuesday published a document on improving the mechanism to protect judges and their associates in fulfilling their legal duties.

The measures stipulate that when handling cases, judges should not be subject to interference from other government organs, social organizations or individuals.

Judges have the right to refuse to follow any requests by any organization or individual that are without legal mandate or due process, the document said.

They are also entitled to refuse to comment on cases which are not in a judicial process or trials that they do not participate in, the document said.

Moreover, they are entitled to make complaints against nine types of action by governmental agencies or staff, including intervention in judicial process, obstruction of justice and restraint or suppression of the judges’ independent expression of opinion.

As cases of disturbance in courts and harassment of judges have increased, the document said all courts should have committees to protect judges’ safety, rights and interests.

Judges and their associates should also be provided with recording devices at their workplace.

The document pledged protection of personal information of judges and their families.

In January, Fu Mingsheng, who worked at a court of Luchuan County in Guangxi, was reportedly killed at his residence by suspect Long Jiancai, a defendant in a divorce case that Fu heard in 1994.

A commission will be established to deliberate important policies on cyber security and organize reviews, according to a document released by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on Tuesday.

The document, on the security of Internet products and services, has just been released for public opinion. The CAC will establish the commission with other authorities.

The document proposed that Internet products and services related to national security and public interests should undergo a security review.

According to the CAC, the reviews will focus on whether the products or services are secure and sufficiently managed, and on assessing risks for them to be illegally controlled, disrupted or interrupted.

The reviews will also evaluate whether there is any risks that the providers are taking advantage of their products and services to illegally gather, store, process or use user information.

In addition, unfair competition, monopolization or any other functions that may damage users’ interests will be reviewed, according to the CAC.

Any service or product that fails the review will be blacklisted, making them off limits to all Communist Party of China organs, government departments, and key industries.

The central authorities Tuesday issued guidelines on an ecological “red line” that will declare certain regions under mandatory and rigorous protection.

The document was jointly issued by the General Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council.

By the end of 2020, according to the document, China should have clearly defined the “red line.”

Given that China’s ecological environment remains fragile and the environmental safety situation is pretty grim, the ecological “red line” serves as both a “bottom line” and a “lifeline” in safeguarding national ecological safety, according to the document.

The “red line” strategy will cover regions with important ecological functions, including water and soil conservation, biodiversity maintenance as well as windbreak and sand-fixation, along with ecologically fragile regions which are prone to soil erosion, desertification and salinization.

The guidelines asked Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, as well as regions along the Yangtze River Economic Belt to draw up a “red line” for ecological protection by the end of 2017, while other areas should come up with a “red line” before the end of 2018.

By the end of 2020, the demarcation of the border and calibration of the regions should be completed and an ecological protection “red line” system will be basically established.

By 2030, the layout of the ecological protection “red line” will be further optimized, effectively implemented, the ecological function of the regions promoted, and national ecological safety guaranteed, according to the document.

The move aims to ensure protected regions will not be ecologically degraded, and their acreage will not be decreased.

“China started to explore the theory and methods of the ‘red line’ in 2012 and made a series of pilots programs,” said Lu Jun, deputy head of the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning.

China’s environmental protection still lags behind its economic status, and decades of breakneck growth have left the country saddled with problems such as smog and contaminated waterways and soil.

In one of its latest attempts to fight pollution, China appointed “river chiefs” nationwide in December.

China detained 720 people for environment-related crimes in 2016, according to the national environment work conference in January.

Through public tip-offs and random checks, inspectors looked into 33,000 cases and imposed fines totalling 440 million yuan (about 63.6 million U.S. dollars) after central government inspections in several provinces and municipalities, including Beijing and Shanghai.

Last year, a total of 4.05 million high-emission vehicles were taken off the country’s roads.

Partly due to such efforts, Chinese cities reported less PM2.5 pollution in 2016, with the average density of PM2.5 in 338 cities falling by 6 percent. Meanwhile, days with good air quality rose 2.1 percent from a year ago.

The central authorities handled 11,735 suggestions and proposals submitted by legislators and political advisors in 2016, over 90 percent of all of those submitted.

Xi Yanchun, spokeswoman with the State Council Information Office said at a press conference on Tuesday that State Council departments had responded to 7,873 suggestions raised by deputies to the National People’s Congress and 3,862 proposals put forward by members of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference during the annual sessions of the two bodies held in March 2016.

This means that 91.5 percent of the national legislators’ suggestions and 90.9 percent of political advisors’ proposals put forward during the two sessions were handled by the central authorities, Xi said.

More than 3,000 suggestions and proposals had been adopted by State Council departments and over 1,300 policies and measures have been introduced accordingly, Xi said, adding that the process had improved the quality of government decision-making.

The Ministry of Education (MOE), which handled 1,023 legislators’ suggestions and 805 political advisors’ proposals, introduced 81 new policies in 2016, most of which were inspired by the suggestions and proposals, according to Shen Xiaoming, vice minister of the MOE, at the briefing.

Issues of top concern last year included student life, educational equality and development of higher education, Shen said.

Inspired by the suggestions and proposals, the National Health and Family Planning Commission issued a guideline on what it calls “Healthy China,” with more than 20 other authorities, and launched an action plan to improve medical services, according to Cui Li, deputy director of the commission, at the briefing.