552
L. Wang
an independent, free and democratic new China on the ruins of semi-feudalism and
semi-colonialism. This is the choice of history.
The CPC is a great Party that has the strongest sense of historical mission in all
the world of all times. From the day of its founding, the Party has taken it as its duty
to fight for the nation’s independence and liberation and the country’s prosperity and
strength. Bearing firmly in mind its aspiration to bring a happy life to the vast majority
of people, it has fought tirelessly in the past century to accomplish major historical
missions in different periods, leading the poor and weak China to become a welloff and strong country and creating numerous miracles in human history. Building
an ecological civilization is the CPC’s new mission in the new era. Concerning the
long-term wellbeing of the Chinese nation and the realization of the two centenary
goals, the concept should be earnestly studied and apprehended in the context of the
Party’s century-long struggles.
The construction of new China started in dire conditions—chronic poverty and
weakness, and desolation and ruins everywhere. As a later comer to the industrialization process, China completed within several decades the civilization transformation
that took western countries several centuries to complete. The scale and speed of its
economic development and social progress in the past 70 years is unprecedented and
has amazed the world.
History is filled with conflicts and twists, and pros and cons, weal and woe always
come hand in hand. The hard lesson that “lagging behind makes one vulnerable to
aggression” has kept inspiring the Chinese nation to make progress in industrialization and modernization, which has unavoidably created a kind of anxiety. Having
suffered too much from foreign aggression and internal conflicts, the new China and
its ruling Party wasted no time in its efforts to step out of poverty and improve the
economy, but they couldn’t accomplish everything overnight. For a certain period,
the Chinese society was too keen on GDP growth. It didn’t fully understand the
bearing capacity of ecological environment and natural resources, didn’t well coordinate the conflicts among population, economy and environment, and didn’t have
a sound system for resource administration and environmental protection. Therefore, while tremendous achievements were made in social and economic sectors,
the environment was under unprecedented pressure. Environmental problems that
were inevitable in the course of rapid economic development, such as consumption
of natural resources and pollution of air, water and land, displayed structural, superimposed, compressed and complex traits. If these problems were not quickly and
resolutely addressed, ecological and social risks would overlap even to the point of
undermining the natural foundation for the survival and development of the Chinese
nation!
The aggravating environmental challenges have caused concerns—are social
progress and economic development bound to destroy the ecological environment?
What exactly is the purpose of development? Will the 5000-year Chinese civilization
sustain? Such awareness of civilization crisis has awakened the society and guided
environmental protection practices. As far as environmental history is concerned,
the current environmental crisis is the outcome of long-term accumulation, particularly the special historical conditions in modern times; it is also the price that Chinese
L. Wang
an independent, free and democratic new China on the ruins of semi-feudalism and
semi-colonialism. This is the choice of history.
The CPC is a great Party that has the strongest sense of historical mission in all
the world of all times. From the day of its founding, the Party has taken it as its duty
to fight for the nation’s independence and liberation and the country’s prosperity and
strength. Bearing firmly in mind its aspiration to bring a happy life to the vast majority
of people, it has fought tirelessly in the past century to accomplish major historical
missions in different periods, leading the poor and weak China to become a welloff and strong country and creating numerous miracles in human history. Building
an ecological civilization is the CPC’s new mission in the new era. Concerning the
long-term wellbeing of the Chinese nation and the realization of the two centenary
goals, the concept should be earnestly studied and apprehended in the context of the
Party’s century-long struggles.
The construction of new China started in dire conditions—chronic poverty and
weakness, and desolation and ruins everywhere. As a later comer to the industrialization process, China completed within several decades the civilization transformation
that took western countries several centuries to complete. The scale and speed of its
economic development and social progress in the past 70 years is unprecedented and
has amazed the world.
History is filled with conflicts and twists, and pros and cons, weal and woe always
come hand in hand. The hard lesson that “lagging behind makes one vulnerable to
aggression” has kept inspiring the Chinese nation to make progress in industrialization and modernization, which has unavoidably created a kind of anxiety. Having
suffered too much from foreign aggression and internal conflicts, the new China and
its ruling Party wasted no time in its efforts to step out of poverty and improve the
economy, but they couldn’t accomplish everything overnight. For a certain period,
the Chinese society was too keen on GDP growth. It didn’t fully understand the
bearing capacity of ecological environment and natural resources, didn’t well coordinate the conflicts among population, economy and environment, and didn’t have
a sound system for resource administration and environmental protection. Therefore, while tremendous achievements were made in social and economic sectors,
the environment was under unprecedented pressure. Environmental problems that
were inevitable in the course of rapid economic development, such as consumption
of natural resources and pollution of air, water and land, displayed structural, superimposed, compressed and complex traits. If these problems were not quickly and
resolutely addressed, ecological and social risks would overlap even to the point of
undermining the natural foundation for the survival and development of the Chinese
nation!
The aggravating environmental challenges have caused concerns—are social
progress and economic development bound to destroy the ecological environment?
What exactly is the purpose of development? Will the 5000-year Chinese civilization
sustain? Such awareness of civilization crisis has awakened the society and guided
environmental protection practices. As far as environmental history is concerned,
the current environmental crisis is the outcome of long-term accumulation, particularly the special historical conditions in modern times; it is also the price that Chinese