400
Y. Pan
equals naturalism; it is the genuine resolution to the conflict between man and nature
and between man and man.” The CPC believes in Marxism, adheres to the great
communist aspiration and strives for a “real community,” so it naturally criticizes
the “spurious community” that alienates the people and causes human destruction of
nature, and strives to restructure the relation between man and man, man and nature,
and man and society, including ideas and systems, natural and cultural environments,
and environmental equity and social justice.
The second theoretical source is traditional Chinese ecological ethics. As General
Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, “the Chinese nation always respects and loves
nature. The 5,000-year-long Chinese civilization has nurtured a rich ecological
culture.” Aspiring for harmonious co-existence, ancient Chinese thought of heaven,
earth and mankind as a unified and harmonious entity, so they fetch from nature at
the right time and utilize natural resources properly, which gradually gave birth to the
“ethics of unlimited responsibility” between man and nature, man and society. Every
generation of Chinese would pay debts owed by unknown ancestors and would bear
responsibilities for unknown offspring. From time immemorial, China, with merely
3 million km
2 of livable land or so, has fed millions to over a billion of its people
without ever resorting to expansion and looting, transfer of ecological cost, or imperialism and colonialism. What it has been relying on is the Chinese ecological ethics
comprising the Confucian philosophy of “man and heaven in one,” the Taoist doctrine
of “following nature’s course,” and the Buddhist tenet of “all are created equal,” as
well as the ecological principle of “balance, moderation, order and restraint” that has
been upheld by all dynasties and administrations in Chinese history. As the inheritor
and promoter of China’s fine traditional culture, the CPC is bound to push forward
the evolution and innovation in our traditional ecological culture in support of the
modern transformation of Chinese civilization.
The third theoretical source is the western concept of sustainable development.
The excessive development of industrialization in the middle of the twentieth century
caused unprecedented tension between man and nature, and the constant, large-scale
environmental crisis across developed countries forced the western world to reflect on
the traditional industrial development mode. In the 1960s, the publication of Silent
Spring triggered a worldwide debate on development concepts; in the 1970s, the
Club of Rome explicitly called for “rational, sustained and balanced development”;
in the 1980s, the United Nations officially put forth the idea of sustainable development; in the 1990s, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) initiated the sustainable development strategy; in 2000, the UN
Millennium Declaration included “sustainability” as a key global agenda. In the West
today, both the left-wing and right-wing are reforming the traditional political and
economic institutions and rectifying traditional industrial civilization with ecological industrial civilization. Both developed and developing countries are reaching a
sustainability-based “green consensus” in spite of their ideological differences, and
setting the goal of all-round human development guided by the three principles of
equity, sustainability, and commonness. The CPC, which is good at learning other
Y. Pan
equals naturalism; it is the genuine resolution to the conflict between man and nature
and between man and man.” The CPC believes in Marxism, adheres to the great
communist aspiration and strives for a “real community,” so it naturally criticizes
the “spurious community” that alienates the people and causes human destruction of
nature, and strives to restructure the relation between man and man, man and nature,
and man and society, including ideas and systems, natural and cultural environments,
and environmental equity and social justice.
The second theoretical source is traditional Chinese ecological ethics. As General
Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, “the Chinese nation always respects and loves
nature. The 5,000-year-long Chinese civilization has nurtured a rich ecological
culture.” Aspiring for harmonious co-existence, ancient Chinese thought of heaven,
earth and mankind as a unified and harmonious entity, so they fetch from nature at
the right time and utilize natural resources properly, which gradually gave birth to the
“ethics of unlimited responsibility” between man and nature, man and society. Every
generation of Chinese would pay debts owed by unknown ancestors and would bear
responsibilities for unknown offspring. From time immemorial, China, with merely
3 million km
2 of livable land or so, has fed millions to over a billion of its people
without ever resorting to expansion and looting, transfer of ecological cost, or imperialism and colonialism. What it has been relying on is the Chinese ecological ethics
comprising the Confucian philosophy of “man and heaven in one,” the Taoist doctrine
of “following nature’s course,” and the Buddhist tenet of “all are created equal,” as
well as the ecological principle of “balance, moderation, order and restraint” that has
been upheld by all dynasties and administrations in Chinese history. As the inheritor
and promoter of China’s fine traditional culture, the CPC is bound to push forward
the evolution and innovation in our traditional ecological culture in support of the
modern transformation of Chinese civilization.
The third theoretical source is the western concept of sustainable development.
The excessive development of industrialization in the middle of the twentieth century
caused unprecedented tension between man and nature, and the constant, large-scale
environmental crisis across developed countries forced the western world to reflect on
the traditional industrial development mode. In the 1960s, the publication of Silent
Spring triggered a worldwide debate on development concepts; in the 1970s, the
Club of Rome explicitly called for “rational, sustained and balanced development”;
in the 1980s, the United Nations officially put forth the idea of sustainable development; in the 1990s, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) initiated the sustainable development strategy; in 2000, the UN
Millennium Declaration included “sustainability” as a key global agenda. In the West
today, both the left-wing and right-wing are reforming the traditional political and
economic institutions and rectifying traditional industrial civilization with ecological industrial civilization. Both developed and developing countries are reaching a
sustainability-based “green consensus” in spite of their ideological differences, and
setting the goal of all-round human development guided by the three principles of
equity, sustainability, and commonness. The CPC, which is good at learning other