For more on this, we are joined by He Weiwei, our reporter in Guangzhou.

Q1: What's behind China's announcement on shutting down illegally reclaimed land?

HE WEIWEI GUANGZHOU In 2017, a national marine inspection group was set up by the State Oceanic Administration, and they have conducted inspections on land reclamation projects in China's coastal areas. And the toughest restrictions that you just mentioned now came right after the marine inspectors' recent reports on their findings in six coastal provinces and regions, including Liaoning, Hebei, Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangxi and Hainan. According to their results, all six areas now face three major problems in terms of land reclamation: first, wasting marine recourses- as some reclaimed land hasn't been used properly or their usage has been converted without official permissions; second, lack of project approval and effective supervision; third, marine pollution caused by land reclamation projects, including severe cases in some areas.

Now why, you might be wondering, is China seeing increased land reclamation? Mainly because most coastal areas are densely populated and lack land space, so land prices in coastal areas are rising rapidly, thus driving the increasing demand of land reclamation. By announcing the toughest restrictions, China wants to keep the trend from developing blindly.