Ecological Civilization is the Chinese Wisdom and Chinese Plan …
455
forward, the world will continue down the path of sustainable development. As
General Secretary Xi Jinping said at the National Conference on Eco-environmental
Protection, “We should work together on global ecological civilization construction
and get deeply involved in global environmental protection governance to come up
with a worldwide solution for environmental protection and sustainable development,
while guiding international cooperation to tackle climate change.”
4 Ideas and Practices of Ecological Civilization in China
The 40-year reform and opening-up in China has brought rapid industrialization and
urbanization and much better lives to the people, but also resulted in a huge ecological
deficit, with problems like air and river pollution, excessive heavy metal content in
soil and food safety issues. For instance, small-scale pollution and black and fetid
water bodies in certain regions haven’t been fundamentally resolved, smog in some
medium and large cities has incurred strong public complaint, a few enterprises are
still discharging effluent against law, and the large-scale prospecting and mining
activities in certain areas over the years have caused local vegetation damages, water
and soil losses and surface subsidence in protected areas. All these have led to
an arduous task of ecological restoration, affected social stability and obstructed
sustainable economic and social development. It will take some time to solve the
environmental problems piled up in the fast development process, and there is still
a long way go to in environmental protection. Reality and international experience
have proved that the traditional extensive development approach cannot sustain and
the resources and environment have reached or approached the upper limit of their
carrying capacity. Therefore, stepping up the efforts of ecological civilization and
building a beautiful China is the only right way forward to keep the Chinese nation
prosperous forever.
What ecological outlook a political Party holds depends on its philosophical
thinking and its view of the biosphere on earth. The CPC is the only party in the
world that has proposed, on the level of the Party and the state, to build ecological civilization. The report of the 17th CPC National Congress officially vowed to
build ecological civilization, which later evolved into building a resource-saving and
environment-friendly society. The 18th CPC National Congress included ecological
progress as a link of the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan and put the establishment of
ecological civilization into the Party Constitution, and proposed to build a beautiful
China and strive for lasting national development. The 19th CPC National Congress
made ecological civilization an important part of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era. As China has steadfastly advanced ecological progress and
deepened institutional reform for that purpose, the whole country, including all local
areas and all walks of life, has made active explorations and innovations to address
protruding environmental problems concerning water, soil and air. Measures have
been taken to protect the mountains, rivers, forests, farmland, lakes and grasslands
in a holistic way, push the supply-side structural reform, pursue green development
455
forward, the world will continue down the path of sustainable development. As
General Secretary Xi Jinping said at the National Conference on Eco-environmental
Protection, “We should work together on global ecological civilization construction
and get deeply involved in global environmental protection governance to come up
with a worldwide solution for environmental protection and sustainable development,
while guiding international cooperation to tackle climate change.”
4 Ideas and Practices of Ecological Civilization in China
The 40-year reform and opening-up in China has brought rapid industrialization and
urbanization and much better lives to the people, but also resulted in a huge ecological
deficit, with problems like air and river pollution, excessive heavy metal content in
soil and food safety issues. For instance, small-scale pollution and black and fetid
water bodies in certain regions haven’t been fundamentally resolved, smog in some
medium and large cities has incurred strong public complaint, a few enterprises are
still discharging effluent against law, and the large-scale prospecting and mining
activities in certain areas over the years have caused local vegetation damages, water
and soil losses and surface subsidence in protected areas. All these have led to
an arduous task of ecological restoration, affected social stability and obstructed
sustainable economic and social development. It will take some time to solve the
environmental problems piled up in the fast development process, and there is still
a long way go to in environmental protection. Reality and international experience
have proved that the traditional extensive development approach cannot sustain and
the resources and environment have reached or approached the upper limit of their
carrying capacity. Therefore, stepping up the efforts of ecological civilization and
building a beautiful China is the only right way forward to keep the Chinese nation
prosperous forever.
What ecological outlook a political Party holds depends on its philosophical
thinking and its view of the biosphere on earth. The CPC is the only party in the
world that has proposed, on the level of the Party and the state, to build ecological civilization. The report of the 17th CPC National Congress officially vowed to
build ecological civilization, which later evolved into building a resource-saving and
environment-friendly society. The 18th CPC National Congress included ecological
progress as a link of the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan and put the establishment of
ecological civilization into the Party Constitution, and proposed to build a beautiful
China and strive for lasting national development. The 19th CPC National Congress
made ecological civilization an important part of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era. As China has steadfastly advanced ecological progress and
deepened institutional reform for that purpose, the whole country, including all local
areas and all walks of life, has made active explorations and innovations to address
protruding environmental problems concerning water, soil and air. Measures have
been taken to protect the mountains, rivers, forests, farmland, lakes and grasslands
in a holistic way, push the supply-side structural reform, pursue green development