472
G. Xia
1 How to Understand “Environment is a Major Political
Issue Which Bears upon the Mission and Purpose
of the CPC”?
Politics refers to the process in which people carry out activities revolving around
public power and the government uses public power to distribute resources with
authority.
1 In short, politics means using political power to run the country. Only
those matters that concern the overall national development and call for the exercise of
state power are major political issues. As such, we can understand why “environment
is a major political issue which bears upon the mission and purpose of the CPC” on
three dimensions—mission, purpose and state.
1. Correctly handling the relation between man and nature is an important
subject in the Party’s effort to govern and revitalize the country
Ever since the CPC came in power, it has been committed to seeking happiness for
Chinese people and great rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. This is the CPC’s grand
mission but also a massive and onerous campaign, in which countless complicated
conflicts and relations have to be addressed, posing high requirements on every aspect
of state governance and allowing no obvious short link in this system. Correctly, the
CPC attaches great importance to handling the relation between man and nature.
As General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, all-round moderate prosperity is a
political commitment; we cannot vow to build the moderately prosperous society
on one hand and leave a poor ecological environment on the other—which won’t
be accepted by the people nor stand up to the test of history. That the Xi Jinping
Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a new era explicitly puts forth
the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan encompassing economic, political, cultural, social
and ecological progress underscores the systematic and complete system of CPC’s
state governance. It is an advanced philosophy and approach of state governance in
the modern world.
(1) Historical price
Governing a gigantic country is a difficult journey teeming with hardships and
setbacks. The Five-Sphere Integrated Plan has only been formed after long years
of explorations and summary at a high historical price. To be objective, China’s
state governance system, for a very long time in the past, lacked the part about
correctly handling the relation between man and nature. It was generally believed
that natural elements like resources, environment and ecology were all abundantly
at our disposal, and our main task was to make full use of them for national development. As a result, environmental protection has been lagging behind the rapid
economic and social development, even leading to the “price scissors”—the faster
the economic society develops, the greater environmental pressure and the more environmental problems. Even today, we still have to face the huge imbalance between
1 Yang (2012).
G. Xia
1 How to Understand “Environment is a Major Political
Issue Which Bears upon the Mission and Purpose
of the CPC”?
Politics refers to the process in which people carry out activities revolving around
public power and the government uses public power to distribute resources with
authority.
1 In short, politics means using political power to run the country. Only
those matters that concern the overall national development and call for the exercise of
state power are major political issues. As such, we can understand why “environment
is a major political issue which bears upon the mission and purpose of the CPC” on
three dimensions—mission, purpose and state.
1. Correctly handling the relation between man and nature is an important
subject in the Party’s effort to govern and revitalize the country
Ever since the CPC came in power, it has been committed to seeking happiness for
Chinese people and great rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. This is the CPC’s grand
mission but also a massive and onerous campaign, in which countless complicated
conflicts and relations have to be addressed, posing high requirements on every aspect
of state governance and allowing no obvious short link in this system. Correctly, the
CPC attaches great importance to handling the relation between man and nature.
As General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, all-round moderate prosperity is a
political commitment; we cannot vow to build the moderately prosperous society
on one hand and leave a poor ecological environment on the other—which won’t
be accepted by the people nor stand up to the test of history. That the Xi Jinping
Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a new era explicitly puts forth
the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan encompassing economic, political, cultural, social
and ecological progress underscores the systematic and complete system of CPC’s
state governance. It is an advanced philosophy and approach of state governance in
the modern world.
(1) Historical price
Governing a gigantic country is a difficult journey teeming with hardships and
setbacks. The Five-Sphere Integrated Plan has only been formed after long years
of explorations and summary at a high historical price. To be objective, China’s
state governance system, for a very long time in the past, lacked the part about
correctly handling the relation between man and nature. It was generally believed
that natural elements like resources, environment and ecology were all abundantly
at our disposal, and our main task was to make full use of them for national development. As a result, environmental protection has been lagging behind the rapid
economic and social development, even leading to the “price scissors”—the faster
the economic society develops, the greater environmental pressure and the more environmental problems. Even today, we still have to face the huge imbalance between
1 Yang (2012).