Environment is a Major Political Issue Which Bears …
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who will blaze out a successful path of handling the complicated contradictions in
ecological civilization development.
3. Strong state power has to be exercised for environmental protection
As General Secretary Xi Jinping said, “To resolve environmental issues, we must
fully exert the political strength of CPC leadership and China’s socialist system which
can bring together the resources necessary to take on great tasks, take full advantage
of the solid material foundations built up over 40 years of reform and opening up, step
up our efforts to build an ecological civilization, wage a determined battle to prevent
and control pollution, and push China’s development of an ecological civilization
to a new stage.” This makes it clear that national forces under political leadership
should be mobilized and employed in advancing environmental protection.
(1) National strength in environmental protection
Environmental protection is a grand cause with comprehensive, long-term and
public significance that calls for immense input of manpower and resources. All
the resources mobilized by the state through various means for the purpose of
environmental protection can be generalized as “national strength in environmental
protection,” or “national eco-strength” for short.
The national eco-strength is part of the overall national strength and may, on
certain conditions, become the main factor that affects overall national strength due
to the “cask effect.” With China’s rapid development in recent years, people have
become more confident in its overall national strength and paid more attention to how
much environmental protection has contributed to it. The green GDP estimated by
environmental professionals gauges the national eco-strength. In general, although
China has become a major strong power in economic, political and military aspect, it
remains weak in environmental protection and has a long way to go before realizing
the modernization of its environmental governance system and capability. It is stated
in the Opinions of the State Council of CPC Central Committee on Comprehensively
Strengthening Environmental Protection and Resolutely Fighting the Tough Battle
of Pollution Prevention and Control that “some areas and departments haven’t fully
recognized the importance of or performed their duties in environmental protection,
and work in this area isn’t well coordinated between urban and rural areas.” A weak
eco-strength has in a way offset the country’s overall strength. To put it briefly, our
current eco-strength may only be enough to cope with the environmental pressure
caused by our economic development scale in the beginning of this century, but it
has to be multiplied in order to bear the current or future environmental pressure.
(2) Political mobilization for environmental protection
Politics is the activity of governing a state through the exercise of political power,
mainly by means of resource allocation. Political mobilization is a must to enhance
China’s national eco-strength because environmental conservation is a nonprofit
cause for public welfare, so it has to be carried out by “talking politics” or through
479
who will blaze out a successful path of handling the complicated contradictions in
ecological civilization development.
3. Strong state power has to be exercised for environmental protection
As General Secretary Xi Jinping said, “To resolve environmental issues, we must
fully exert the political strength of CPC leadership and China’s socialist system which
can bring together the resources necessary to take on great tasks, take full advantage
of the solid material foundations built up over 40 years of reform and opening up, step
up our efforts to build an ecological civilization, wage a determined battle to prevent
and control pollution, and push China’s development of an ecological civilization
to a new stage.” This makes it clear that national forces under political leadership
should be mobilized and employed in advancing environmental protection.
(1) National strength in environmental protection
Environmental protection is a grand cause with comprehensive, long-term and
public significance that calls for immense input of manpower and resources. All
the resources mobilized by the state through various means for the purpose of
environmental protection can be generalized as “national strength in environmental
protection,” or “national eco-strength” for short.
The national eco-strength is part of the overall national strength and may, on
certain conditions, become the main factor that affects overall national strength due
to the “cask effect.” With China’s rapid development in recent years, people have
become more confident in its overall national strength and paid more attention to how
much environmental protection has contributed to it. The green GDP estimated by
environmental professionals gauges the national eco-strength. In general, although
China has become a major strong power in economic, political and military aspect, it
remains weak in environmental protection and has a long way to go before realizing
the modernization of its environmental governance system and capability. It is stated
in the Opinions of the State Council of CPC Central Committee on Comprehensively
Strengthening Environmental Protection and Resolutely Fighting the Tough Battle
of Pollution Prevention and Control that “some areas and departments haven’t fully
recognized the importance of or performed their duties in environmental protection,
and work in this area isn’t well coordinated between urban and rural areas.” A weak
eco-strength has in a way offset the country’s overall strength. To put it briefly, our
current eco-strength may only be enough to cope with the environmental pressure
caused by our economic development scale in the beginning of this century, but it
has to be multiplied in order to bear the current or future environmental pressure.
(2) Political mobilization for environmental protection
Politics is the activity of governing a state through the exercise of political power,
mainly by means of resource allocation. Political mobilization is a must to enhance
China’s national eco-strength because environmental conservation is a nonprofit
cause for public welfare, so it has to be carried out by “talking politics” or through