National Ecological Civilization Pilot
Zone: From Theory to Practice
Qingzhi Huan
Strictly speaking, the National Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone is just a public
policy initiative carried out in a very short period of time. But the winners of this
designation have in fact been working in this regard for a long time under other
names. More importantly, the Master Plan for Reform of the System for Developing
an Ecological Civilization and the Opinions on Establishing National Ecological
Civilization Pilot Zones with Uniform Standards officially give them the national
title, which raises our expectation for the orientation and demonstration effect of the
practices in the provinces of the Zone. In this paper, I choose Fujian, Hainan, and
Guizhou provinces for case study, hoping to promote the academic research on not
only the National Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone but also the national ecological
civilization pilot demonstration projects in a more general sense.
1 Theoretical Basis for the Construction of National
Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone
The direct theoretical or policy basis for the construction of the National Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone is the political report to the 18th National Congress of
the Communist Party of China held in November 2012. The report emphasizes that
promoting ecological progress is a long-term task of vital importance to the people’s
wellbeing and China’s future, a necessary condition for the lasting and sustainable
development of the Chinese nation and global ecological security, and therefore,
we must give high priority to making ecological progress and incorporate it into
all aspects and the whole process of advancing economic, political, cultural, and
social progress, i.e. the so-called Five-Sphere Integrated Plan. Meanwhile, while
vigorously promoting ecological progress, we must focus on the four major strategic
Q. Huan (B)
School of Marxism, Peking University, Beijing, China
© China Environment Publishing Group Co., Ltd. 2021
J. Pan et al. (eds.), Beautiful China: 70 Years Since 1949 and 70 People’s Views
on Eco-civilization Construction, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6742-5_65
657
Zone: From Theory to Practice
Qingzhi Huan
Strictly speaking, the National Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone is just a public
policy initiative carried out in a very short period of time. But the winners of this
designation have in fact been working in this regard for a long time under other
names. More importantly, the Master Plan for Reform of the System for Developing
an Ecological Civilization and the Opinions on Establishing National Ecological
Civilization Pilot Zones with Uniform Standards officially give them the national
title, which raises our expectation for the orientation and demonstration effect of the
practices in the provinces of the Zone. In this paper, I choose Fujian, Hainan, and
Guizhou provinces for case study, hoping to promote the academic research on not
only the National Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone but also the national ecological
civilization pilot demonstration projects in a more general sense.
1 Theoretical Basis for the Construction of National
Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone
The direct theoretical or policy basis for the construction of the National Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone is the political report to the 18th National Congress of
the Communist Party of China held in November 2012. The report emphasizes that
promoting ecological progress is a long-term task of vital importance to the people’s
wellbeing and China’s future, a necessary condition for the lasting and sustainable
development of the Chinese nation and global ecological security, and therefore,
we must give high priority to making ecological progress and incorporate it into
all aspects and the whole process of advancing economic, political, cultural, and
social progress, i.e. the so-called Five-Sphere Integrated Plan. Meanwhile, while
vigorously promoting ecological progress, we must focus on the four major strategic
Q. Huan (B)
School of Marxism, Peking University, Beijing, China
© China Environment Publishing Group Co., Ltd. 2021
J. Pan et al. (eds.), Beautiful China: 70 Years Since 1949 and 70 People’s Views
on Eco-civilization Construction, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6742-5_65
657