Connotations of Xi Jinping Thought
on Ecological Civilization
Jianjun Zhao
1 The Formation of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological
Civilization
A retrospect on Xi Jinping’s growth and career experiences as well as some research
on his speeches about ecological progress lead to the following timeline of the
formation of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization:
1. The rudimentary stage
From 1969 to 1975, Xi Jinping spent seven years of his youth life in Liangjiahe
Village, Yanchuan County of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province. To improve
the fragile environment and people’s living conditions in Liangjiahe, Xi went to
Mianyang, Sichuan Province, at his own expense and learned how to build bio-gas
digesters. It was a time when Chinese people just began to make their attempts at
building bio-gas digesters. Xi led villagers in Liangjiahe to build dozens of such
digesters. Thus the local people no longer had to rely on kerosene lamps for lighting,
or on firewood for cooking. More importantly, this brought the idea of recycling to
the village. The bio-gas digesters alleviated the pressure on the local environment
and protected the fragile ecosystem. In a sense, the Loess Plateau is the birth place
of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization.
In Zhengding, Xi put forth an idea of developing “extensive agriculture” based
on local realities. He called on local people to change their mindset about farming,
improve the agricultural technology, build a more reasonable economic structure for
better balanced development, and use land in more efficient ways. With Xi at the
helm, Zhengding County formulated a master plan for economic, technological and
social development in 1985. The document highlighted environmental protection,
pollution control, rational use of resources and ecological balance as important tasks
in the modernization drive and urgent needs of production and life. According to the
J. Zhao (B)
Philosophy Department, Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, Beijing, China
© China Environment Publishing Group Co., Ltd. 2021
J. Pan et al. (eds.), Beautiful China: 70 Years Since 1949 and 70 People’s Views
on Eco-civilization Construction, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6742-5_16
185
on Ecological Civilization
Jianjun Zhao
1 The Formation of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological
Civilization
A retrospect on Xi Jinping’s growth and career experiences as well as some research
on his speeches about ecological progress lead to the following timeline of the
formation of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization:
1. The rudimentary stage
From 1969 to 1975, Xi Jinping spent seven years of his youth life in Liangjiahe
Village, Yanchuan County of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province. To improve
the fragile environment and people’s living conditions in Liangjiahe, Xi went to
Mianyang, Sichuan Province, at his own expense and learned how to build bio-gas
digesters. It was a time when Chinese people just began to make their attempts at
building bio-gas digesters. Xi led villagers in Liangjiahe to build dozens of such
digesters. Thus the local people no longer had to rely on kerosene lamps for lighting,
or on firewood for cooking. More importantly, this brought the idea of recycling to
the village. The bio-gas digesters alleviated the pressure on the local environment
and protected the fragile ecosystem. In a sense, the Loess Plateau is the birth place
of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization.
In Zhengding, Xi put forth an idea of developing “extensive agriculture” based
on local realities. He called on local people to change their mindset about farming,
improve the agricultural technology, build a more reasonable economic structure for
better balanced development, and use land in more efficient ways. With Xi at the
helm, Zhengding County formulated a master plan for economic, technological and
social development in 1985. The document highlighted environmental protection,
pollution control, rational use of resources and ecological balance as important tasks
in the modernization drive and urgent needs of production and life. According to the
J. Zhao (B)
Philosophy Department, Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, Beijing, China
© China Environment Publishing Group Co., Ltd. 2021
J. Pan et al. (eds.), Beautiful China: 70 Years Since 1949 and 70 People’s Views
on Eco-civilization Construction, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6742-5_16
185