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government connections have been the subject of a flurry of recent media reports. ZijinMining also topped a list of 11 firms found to have severe environmental problems, publishedby China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection in May 2010. 3 Researchers criticized that,Zijin’s fast expansion coupled with huge profits are mostly at the expense of local environment.The environmental records of Zijin from 2006 to 2010 in mainland China are showed by thefollowing Table 1:Table 1. Bad environmental records of Zijin in China from 2006 to 2010.Year Location Event2006 Zhenfeng Gold Mine, Guizhou 200,000 cubic meters of waste water containing potassiumcyanide spilled from tailings2008 - Failed to pass the Green Securities 4 approval due to badenvironmental records2009 Zhangjiakou, Hebei Tailing spill occurred at the Dongping Mine backwater system2010 - One of eleven listed companies failed to fulfill the environmentalrectification announced by MEP2010 Shanghang, Fujian Copper acid waste leakage incidentHowever, as a big taxpayer, Zijin Mining had not received severe punishment from localenvironmental protection agencies until 2010, then things began to change after the Zijinshancopper acid waste leakage incident. On September 26, 2010, the Fujian DEP made the penaltydecisions under article 83 of the “Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People's Republicof China” as follows: Ordered the company to rectify, take control measures to eliminatepollution, and imposed a penalty of CNY 9,563,130 (around USD 1,500,000) 5 . However, thisannouncement caused an uproar in this area, not only because this penalty was too lowcompared to Zijin’s annual profit and the economic loss in this accident, although this was thelargest penalty in the history of China's environmental enforcement; but also that those peoplewho were responsible for this accident had not been punished at all. According to Zijin’sAnnual Report 2010, its total profit of FY2010 was CNY 7,331,571,772 (around USD 1billion), so the penalty only took up a very little share of its annual profit (0.1%), that’s whyZijin didn’t really care about this penalty at all. 6 Besides, this accident also attracted theattention of China’s central government, and then the MEP sent a special expert team toinvestigate the truth of this accident. On May 4, 2011, the Longyan City Intermediate People’sCourt upheld the decision issued by a district court in late January. The Longyan courtannounced the final judgment about this accident: Zijin committed a felony of severe3Why Chinese firms don’t apologise. https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/3787-Why-Chinese-firms-don-t-apologise4The “Green Securities” policy was launched by MEP in February 2008 in partnership with the ChinaSecurities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). The policy aims to make it harder for polluters to raise capitalby requiring companies listed on the stock exchange to disclose more information about theirenvironmental record. The “Green Securities” policy was enhanced by the issuance of the “Green IPO” inJune 2008. The policy document (“The Management Roster of Listed Companies EnvironmentalVerification Industry Categories”) requires enterprises in liang gao (high pollution and high energyconsumption) industries to undergo an environmental assessment by MEP before initiating an IPO orobtaining refinancing from banks.5http://www.fjepb.gov.cn/action/article/articleShow_articleAction.action?aid=638066http://www.cninfo.com.cn/finalpage/2011-03-31/59207370.PDF59