Beautiful China: 70 Years Since 1949 and 70 People’s Views on Eco-civilization Construction

The past 40 years have seen China, with a population of nearly 1.4 billion, grow from a poor country to the second largest economy in the world. China’s environmental protection policy has also changed, with emphasis shifting from the control of wastewater, exhaust gas, and solid waste to the development of ecological civilization. China has gradually become a participant, contributor, and leader in global sustainable development. Looking back on China’s past environment protection practices, we find that environment protection is closely related to social and economic development. We have different environmental problems at different stages of social and economic development. A country’s environment management system and structure depend on its stage of economic development and the needs of its society. China’s environment governance system and model have been continuously improved to keep up with the time. In the future, as socialism with Chinese characteristics advances into a new stage, China should step up its efforts to build the ecological civilization, strive for a beautiful China, work with other countries to build a clean and beautiful world, and contribute to global sustainable development.

The year 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Over the past 70 years, China has promulgated a full range of environmental laws, developed an environmental legislative system with Chinese characteristics, actively participated in global environmental governance, and led the world onto the path towards environmental rule of law. A review of the 70-year history of building the environmental rule of law and an analysis of the context in which the environmental rule of law has evolved over the years can help us build confidence in the environmental rule of law in the new era and is of profound significance to China’s efforts to accelerate the development of the environmental rule of law in the new era, improve the environmental legislative system, and achieve the goals of the Beautiful China campaign.

The development of the People’s Republic of China in the past 70 years is the greatest miracle in the modern world. The past 70 years have seen China, with a population of more than 1.3 billion, grow from a poor country to the second largest economy in the world. The Chinese government has worked to keep its environmental protection policy up to date, with emphasis shifting from the control of wastewater, exhaust gas, and solid waste to the development of ecological civilization. With environmental protection at the center of modernization, it has proposed a grand blueprint for building a beautiful China, and is gradually moving toward the center stage of global environmental governance. China is joining hands with other countries to build a community with a shared future for mankind and a clean and beautiful world. This unprecedented ambition attracted worldwide attention. In particular, China’s achievements in environmental protection and ecological civilization development since the 18th National Congress of the CPC received praise and recognition from the Chinese people and the international community.

In the 70 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, nature reserves have increased in both quantity and variety and the focus of China’s nature conservation efforts has shifted from the construction of protected areas to the development of a regional ecological security pattern. China’s nature conservation efforts have been continuously strengthened, leading to remarkable results. In 1956, China built its first nature reserve—Dinghushan Nature Reserve. After more than 60 years, China’s nature conservation system has gradually matured. The nature conservation system consists of geological parks, natural and cultural heritage sites, wetland parks, aquatic germplasm reserves, marine protected areas, and specially protected islands. On this basis, China successively added ecological function areas (2008), ecologically fragile areas (2008), key ecological function areas (2011) and other key ecological conservation areas to the system. In 2011, China first put forward the proposal of “delineating the ecological conservation red line.” In 2015, China launched a pilot reform of its national park system and started building a nature conservation system in which national parks played a major role. These two major measures further enriched China’s nature conservation system and significantly accelerated the formation of a sound national ecological security pattern.

Environmental protection in China formally started 40 years ago in the 1970s. On the one hand, China has made remarkable strides in both development and environmental protection; on the other hand, it is still under tremendous environmental pressure. The country still has a long way to go before it can truly achieve green, low-carbon and sustainable development. Domestic and international environment has changed and China has much more to do to continuously promote the development of an ecological civilization and home and abroad while maintaining high-quality social and economic development.

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Communist Party of China has creatively used the mass line to promote the development of an ecological civilization. It attached great importance to promoting the development of ecological civilization through mass efforts. It not only launched environmental (green) campaigns with Chinese characteristics, but also built an environmental (green) governance system with Chinese characteristics. The mass line provides strong and lasting driving forces for the development of an ecological civilization in China.

The emergence of an industrial civilization is the historical roots of all modern conflicts. On the one hand, as Friedrich Engels said, it not only promotes the progress of material civilization, but also is conducive to the development of spiritual civilization. On the other hand, while advancing the capitalist civilization, the industrial civilization overly exploited natural resources, showing a strong anthropocentric tendency, which ultimately would lead to a deterioration of the balance between man and nature. The anthropocentric tendency of an industrial civilization emphasizes the conquest of nature by humans. This tendency allows humans to set rules for the world with peace of mind, and use such rules to develop and utilize the natural world, treating nature as a source of wealth instead of a friend.

Environmental planning and environmental protection started at the same time and have been developing simultaneously in China. In August 1973, the Chinese government held its first national environmental protection conference and issued the Environmental Protection and Improvement Regulations (Interim), proposing to plan environmental protection in a holistic and reasonable manner, improve resource efficiency, reduce negative environmental impact of human activities, and encourage everyone to participate in environmental protection efforts. Planning environmental protection in a holistic manner is at the core of the policy, which establishes the fundamental and leading position of planning in various environmental management systems. Since the first national environmental protection plan, nine five-year national environmental protection plans have been prepared and implemented thought the specific names changed over time. The status of the plans was raised from internal plans to departmental plans and then to national plans approved and issued by the State Council. An environmental planning system with Chinese characteristics has been created and played an important role in the country’s environmental protection endeavor.

The convening of the first National Environmental Protection Conference in August 1973 marked the beginning of modern environmental governance in China. Almost all retrospective studies on environmental protection in China regard this conference as the starting point of modern environmental governance in the country, while, due to the lack of information and other reasons, environmental protection activities prior to this conference are rarely discussed. Even if there is such discussion, the information given is usually quite vague. However, in fact, without the long-term efforts made by the Chinese government in environmental protection before the conference, it would be difficult for the country to kick-start the environmental efforts in the modern sense smoothly in 1973. This article aims to deepen people’s understanding of China’s environmental protection efforts before the first National Environmental Protection Conference. We have found and examined sufficient historical records on the environmental protection efforts of the Chinese government during that period, and laid out the characteristics of different stages and the connections of these efforts with environmental protection activities after the second National Environmental Protection Conference.

“Grass grows vibrantly by the pool and birds sing happily on the willow tree.” The verse vividly depicts a scene commonly seen in the beautiful and livable countryside. Rural areas assume multiple functions such as providing agricultural products, offering ecological services and carrying forward folk customs. They are also the places where people can enjoy the natural landscape and recall their love of nature. In other words, the beautiful countryside is the source of quality agricultural products, the backyard and garden of cities, and the spiritual home of people who are away from their hometown.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) incorporated the development of ecological civilization into the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan, I have been pleased with the decision of the CPC Central Committee on significantly improving the status and role of environmental protection. This is exactly the great situation that comrades in environmental protection departments have been looking forward to for many years

On May 18, 2018, the CPC Central Committee held the National Conference on Eco-environmental Protection, the highlight of which was the illumination of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization. General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered the important speech entitled Pushing China’s Development of an Ecological Civilization to a New Stage at the conference, putting forward the general guideline and strategy for promoting ecological civilization and building a beautiful China in the new era.

China has entered a critical period of ecological civilization development under pressures from multiple aspects. A careful review of China’s efforts in ecological civilization development in recent years and an in-depth analysis of achievements, problems, and key points are of great significance for accelerating development in this regard and building a beautiful China. This paper proposes three suggestions concerning the highlights, difficulties, and key points of China’s ecological civilization development efforts.

The National Conference on Eco-environmental Protection held in 2018 officially established Xi Jinping Though on Ecological Civilization as a guiding principle. The scientific foundation of the thought is laid as eight basic principles: First, civilization may thrive if its natural surroundings thrive, and will suffer if its natural surroundings suffer.

A distinctive feature of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization is that it serves the people. “The people-oriented approach to development is a fundamental principle of Marxist political economics.” The original aspiration and mission of Chinese Communists is to seek happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation.

A retrospect on Xi Jinping’s growth and career experiences as well as some research on his speeches about ecological progress lead to the following timeline of the formation of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization.

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has stressed on multiple occasions that “we must properly handle the relation between economic development and environmental protection, and uphold the philosophy that protecting and improving the environment is protecting and increasing productivity.” This statement, representing a new requirement on China’s sustainable economic and social development on a comprehensive and strategic level, is an action guide for the whole Party and the whole country to build a beautiful China and realize the Chinese Dream of the great national rejuvenation. By revealing the relation between ecological environment and productivity from the ideological and theoretical perspective, it marks a major development of the productivity theory.

The National Conference on Eco-environmental Protection held in May 18, 2018 was a milestone in China’s efforts of developing ecological civilization and protecting the ecological environment. A signature outcome and the biggest innovation of the conference was that the Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization was officially proposed and established.

Practice is the source of knowledge. It drives cognitive development by providing necessary conditions and hones the subject’s cognitive ability. Practice is the standard for truth and the fundamental purpose of cognition as well. The essence of Marxist epistemology is that practice comes first, everything should be based on reality, and practice plays a decisive role in cognition.

It is the CPC’s unwavering aspiration and mission to build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful by the middle of the twenty-first century. Modernizing the systems and capabilities of ecological governance is the only way and necessary guarantee for building a beautiful China.

Ecological civilization is the imperative need for man-nature harmony, and building ecological civilization is vital to sustaining the Chinese nation’s development. At the National Conference on Eco-environmental Protection held in May 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping gave an important speech from the perspective of the people’s wellbeing, the nation’s future, and the general undertakings of the Party and the country.

From the strategic perspective of sustainable development of the Chinese nation and mankind, General Secretary Xi Jinping has systematically expounded on the value and vision of stepping up the building of an ecological civilization to promote harmony between human and nature and achieve sustainable development.

At the National Conference on Eco-environmental Protection that opened on May 18, 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered a speech titled Pushing China’s Development of an Ecological Civilization to a New Stage, which was published on Issue No. 3 of Qiu Shi journal on February 1, 2019. This important speech embodies Xi Jining Thought on Ecological Civilization and serves as a fundamental guideline for the building of an ecological civilization in the new era.

Green transformation is an inherent requirement of developing a resource-conserving, environmentally friendly economy. By the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, namely 2022, China’s per capita GDP is expected to reach USD 12,600, bringing China into the ranks of high-income countries, which will be an epoch-making event in the history of human society.

Development encompasses economic development, human development, and sustainable development, which have different meanings and goals. At the policy level, they should be put together in a specific space to be meaningful; to look at them separately and abstractly will not make much sense.

Since reform and opening-up started, China has created a miracle by launching the largest ever industrialization drive in human history. This, however, has brought unprecedented environmental pressure, making it necessary for China to embark on a path of green development distinct from traditional industrialization.

Peonies are woody plants native to China. Hailed as the “king of flowers” for their beauty and fragrance, they have been dearly loved by people since ancient times. Peony growing began in the Jin dynasty, gained popularity in the Sui dynasty, and flourished in the Tang and Song dynasties.

For a long time, China’s socioeconomic development has largely followed the model during the traditional industrial civilization. Due to the inadequate consideration for resources and environmental factors, the scarcity of natural resources and the limit of environmental capacity have not been well reflected in the allocation of various factors and resources.

When we speak of eco-environment protection in general, there would be no objection to it. When it comes to the details, however, environmental protection will stir the vested interests of various parties and opinions vary greatly and even contradict each other from different perspectives.

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, under the guidance of the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the outstanding leadership of the CPC, the transportation industry went through a bottleneck period in pursuing development, a period of initially easing the bottleneck, before “basically meeting” the needs of socioeconomic development.

The 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016−2020) is the decisive stage for China in the building of a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and the initial stage for new breakthroughs in the transformation of information and communication technology. In the meanwhile, information technology represents new productivity and development goal and has become a pioneering force in leading innovation and driving transformation.

Green is the color of nature and represents the foundations of a better life for the people. Over the past 70 years since the founding of New China, we have gradually deepened our understanding of green development and improved relevant practices accordingly. After going through a process from limited to profound understanding and from conscious to spontaneous practices, China has embarked on a path of green development with Chinese characteristics.

As General Secretary Xi Jinping said on many occasions, “the rise and fall of a civilization is closely tied to its relationship with nature.” Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization was adopted as a guide for action at the National Conference on Eco-environmental Protection on May 18, 2018. At the conference, Xi reiterated: “Our mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes and grasslands together form a biotic community. An ecosystem is an integrated natural system of interdependent and closely related ecological chains.

Though seemingly a trivial matter in daily life, waste classification is absolutely a must when we reach a certain stage of economic and social development. It is necessary for environmental protection, natural resources conservation, a better living environment, greater capacity for green and sustainable development, and self-improvement of a civilization. Therefore, waste classification is no trivial matter for a country or nation.

China’s rapid economic development since the launch of the reform and opening up has come with huge consumption and inefficient use of energy and resources, resulting in serious ecological damages and environmental degradation that has hindered economic development and had a negative impact on people’s life. The traditional model of development contributed significantly to material progress, but it also caused serious damage to the environment.

Zero-waste city represents a model of sustainable urban development, which aims to build an ecological civilization and follows the new development concepts featuring innovation, coordination and green development.

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the significance of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (hereinafter referred to as the Greater Bay Area) in creating a new model of all-round opening up in China.

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized in the report to the 19th National Congress of the CPC that we should cherish the environment as we cherish our lives. He pointed out that taking the driver’s seat in international cooperation to respond to climate change, China has become an important participant, contributor, and torchbearer in the global endeavor for the building of an ecological civilization.

As the world is going through profound changes never seen in a century, the human civilization is also switching from industrial civilization to ecological civilization. Upholding the basic governance philosophy of ecological civilization and guided by the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, especially the Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core has materialized historic, epochal and all-round changes in China’s ecological civilization by promoting the green initiative of building a beautiful China.

“Studying Confucius and Confucianism is an important way to understand the nature of the Chinese nation and the history of the spiritual world of modern Chinese.”

Promoting ecological progress concerns the people’s well-being and China’s future. On the strategic height of the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan for socialism with Chinese characteristics, the 18th CPC National Congress made strategic deployments regarding ecological civilization and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Since then, the new generation of central leadership with Xi Jinping at the core has earnestly advanced ecological progress with firmer resolve and more pragmatic measures. They have given new connotations to and made new requirements on the cause of pushing the Chinese nation to the new era of ecological civilization and realizing the dream of a beautiful China.

Development without protection is fishing by draining the pond; protection without development is seeking fish from trees. As ecological civilization is a new form of civilization marking the orientation of the twenty-first century, its primary criterion is without doubt the advanced productive force.

The CPC and the Chinese government have attached great importance to ecological civilization, and General Secretary Xi Jinping has personally directed and promoted this cause, which has brought out historic and comprehensive changes in the country. The environmental situation in China has notably improved thanks to the concerted efforts of all parties. In Beijing, people are enjoying more days of blue sky and white cloud; around the country, the ecological environment is getting better as bald mountains become green and rivers lucid. However, for a big country with a population of nearly 1.4 billion people, the environmental pressure is huge on its way to developing the economy and pursuing a happy life, and ecological improvement will get increasingly difficult as we move forward. There is a long way to go in our endeavor to build a beautiful China, and it is absolutely necessary to carry out relevant in-depth studies, clarify various relations and keep deepening our understanding.

Civilization is the progress and development of human society and human nature that symbolizes the advanced cultural state and values of mankind. As the focus of ecological study has shifted to institutions and theories, the concept of ecology has also shifted from an ecological system to one that respects and integrates the laws of ecosystems.

Man has only one earth, which we didn’t inherit from our forebears but borrowed from our offspring. The current generation should never live on what our ancestors have created while leaving troubles to later generations. The four great ancient civilizations of Egypt, Babylon, India, and China all began in regions with thick forests, abundant water, and fertile soil. About 3000–4000 years ago, man established resplendent civilizations by large rivers, including China by the Yellow River, ancient Egypt by the Nile, ancient Babylon by the Tigris–Euphrates river system, and India by Indian River, which have been internationally acknowledged as one of the four major civilizations. Natural disasters and human activities caused the dramatic deterioration of ecology and sent the civilizations of ancient Egypt, ancient Babylon, ancient India and Maya from peak to perishing. Man has only one earth and protecting it is our common responsibility. There are many different nations, states, interest groups, religious beliefs and social systems in the world. What common interests and consensus do we have to maintain such a world of great diversity? Ecological civilization and sustainable development are the only way to make humans live together in harmony and rationally choose a common future. Man and earth are a community with a shared future, in which all countries should join hands to build ecological civilization. Major countries in particular should fulfill their responsibilities as such.

Ever since its emergence, human being has been in a relation of unity of opposites with the environment. On the one hand, obtaining resources from the environment is the basic condition of human survival and development, and man’s productive and living activities always exert impacts on the environment, as reflected in the consumption, deterioration and damage of it. On the other hand, excessive exploitation of resources and environmental damage will eventually affect human survival and development. Therefore, in different development stages of productivity and different social systems, man, based on its understanding of its relation with environment that is acquired from productive and living practices, has always incorporated environmental factors in its activities of social construction in various ways, aiming at the coordination between human society and environment. In this sense, there is always an environmental dimension to social construction though it varies in different historical periods and backgrounds. For one thing, the human perception of environmental status and impacts varies in different stages of social development; for another, the inclusion of environmental factors in social construction varies in breadth, depth and intensity.

At the National Conference on Eco-environmental Protection, General Secretary Xi Jinping said “environment is a major political issue which bears upon the mission and purpose of the CPC.” This was a solemn and thought-provoking remark in that it not only directly connected environmental protection and ecological progress with the Party’s properties for the first time, but also elevated them to the highest political level.

Ecological progress is coordinated and integrated with economic, political, cultural and social progress. Economic development is the foundation, social development the goal, political development the guarantee and cultural inheritance and innovation the soul. In promoting ecological progress, we should bear in mind the current conditions while looking to the future; push it forward comprehensively with clear priorities; practice it in China but also take the lead in the world; and focus on outstanding environmental problems while emphasizing systematic and overall effects. We cannot drain the pond for fish or kill the hen for eggs—that’s sacrificing our offspring’s well-being for immediate interests and short-term growth; nor can we give up development and willingly stay in poverty for environmental protection. It’s hard to realize a sound ecosystem cycle without livelihood improvement, and livelihood won’t sustain either if we neglect the improvement of environmental quality. Therefore, we must adopt green development, take the path of sustainable development and walk into a new era of ecological civilization.

The proposition of the sustainable development concept is a big step forward in mankind’s “environmental philosophy.” Before the 1950s, there was the famous Malthusian Theory of Population, but in general, man tends to believe, consciously or unconsciously, that the environment is able to provide human society with natural resources and environmental labor infinitely, and that its functions won’t be harmed no matter how we dispose of and utilize it. Such an idea is detrimental to human welfare and happiness and makes man, the entrusted manager, feel that they do not have to shoulder responsibilities for nature, society and later generations and no use to manage the man-environment system. However, the increasing breadth and depth of human intervention on nature has brought about more serious environmental damages. Since the 1960s, man has begun to realize that the natural resources and environmental labor provided by the earth are not infinite, but are as rare as capital and labor. How to dispose of and use what the earth provides relates with human welfare and happiness, and the current generation has the responsibility to rationally manage the earth environment for human interests. However, for some time we didn’t fully grasp the essence of environmental problems, and adopted the simple approach of “post-pollution governance” to environmental management.

The industrial civilization doubtlessly represents huge progress of mankind, but as traditional industrial mode is unsustainable, ecological civilization has become the only choice to achieve sustainable development. When we discuss ecological civilization, one typical thinking is to equate it with green industrial civilization, which hopes to resolve environmental problems through technological progress under the traditional industrial mode.

President Xi Jinping said, “The path we take determines our destiny,” which has proved a truth in history. From the perspective of human civilization development, the Chinese path—the 5000-year-long history of Chinese civilization—has taken three major steps that decide China’s future. The first step is in the agricultural age when the Chinese agricultural civilization, guided by core social values then, climbed to the world’s top in its accomplishments and made great contributions to mankind. The second step is in the industrial age when China, due to the inertia of agricultural civilization, failed to shift to a new track, and therefore was reduced to a dumping field of products from advanced industrialized countries and was plundered by them for resources, leading to a century of humiliation and misery. The third step is in the age of ecological civilization when China, under the firm leadership of the CPC, has pioneered on the path of ecological civilization for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. China will be great again!

Both the 18th and 19th National Congress of the CPC exalted ecological civilization to be part of the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan for the socialist cause and a national development strategy, and put it in a significant position in endeavors to build a beautiful China and realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation. When joining the deliberations of the Inner Mongolia delegation during the second session of the 13th National People’s Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping particularly stressed “maintaining the strategic resolve of building an ecological civilization.” When addressing the opening ceremony of the 2019 Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition, he further announced the inclusion of ecological civilization in China’s overall development plan. Since the development of ecological civilization is included both in the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan for modernization in the new era and in the overall national development plan, I believe it is now regarded as a major development strategy, and the series of assertions made by General Secretary Xi are the guiding thoughts on advancing this strategy across the board. Below is a brief overview and systematic explanations of eight important theoretical and practical innovations in the ecological civilization strategy in the new era.

The accelerated progress of modern science and technology and the appearance of global ecological crisis have both made us realize the end of an old age and the arrival of a new one as we are moving from industrial civilization to a new civilization. There are various views as to what defines the new age or civilization and how we should name it. Two views are worth special attention—the new age or civilization is about ecology or about information. This paper will compare the two views and briefly delineate the vision of the new civilization.

Reality is the continuation and development of history, and civilization is the accumulation and update of history. The ecological civilization campaign is the grandest undertaking and the most complicated and massive program in the modern world. China being the first country to propose the development of ecological civilization is both imperative and inevitable. The cause, though started in our generation, will benefit many generations to come. We should try to have a comprehensive and deep understanding of the immense and profound significance of this campaign from a historical perspective, so as to come to a thorough and correct judgment.

The report of the 19th National Congress of the CPC stated that building an ecological civilization is vital to sustain the Chinese nation’s development and is the only way to address the contradiction between people’s ever-growing needs for a good ecological environment and the inadequate effective supply of ecological products. At the National Conference on Eco-environmental Protection in 2018, the Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization was established as a beacon for developing ecological civilization. Revolving around the major requirements of this campaign, universities, as institutions undertaking scientific research and talent cultivation, should on the one hand lead as pioneers and guides in promoting green, circular and low-carbon development in the endeavor to contribute to China’s and the world’s sustainable development. On the other hand, they should also fully exert their advantages and roles to actively advance education in ecological civilization and explore the path of building green universities, and advocate energy conservation and emission reduction on campus, as part of the efforts to promote regional environmental improvement.

Ever since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, ecological civilization has been comprehensively implemented as a major national strategy with great progress made in environmental protection. Under the rigorous supervision and guidance of the central government, pollution sources have been shut down and sludge and garbage piled up for a long time quickly cleared away, but environmental problems have kept re-emerging as they also reflect social issues.

The 18th National Congress of the CPC proposed the path of ecological civilization for China, the first time the banner of ecological civilization was held up in the world and marking a milestone in the twenty-first century. It demonstrates the confidence and commitment of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core for seeking a path different from the western path of industrial civilization with eastern wisdom to adapt to the requirements of the times.

Dire environmental issues have exposed the plight of human culture. The only way to overcome the ecological crisis, protect ecological security and achieve harmony between man and nature is establishing the vision of ecological civilization, changing people’s values, creating the eco-culture system and taking concrete measures to intensify ecological governance.

The conception of nature is the foundation of philosophy in every age. We cannot study ecological civilization without discussing the conception of nature, which is the theoretical and logical precondition. People’s conception of nature is changing with the change of their ability to understand and change nature. This change, which is driven by scientific and technological progress and by the inheritance and development of academic thoughts, should be studied on the theoretical level.

Walking in the villages of Hani ethnic group, I felt like being in a landscape painting of mountains, waters, forests, farmland and lakes. Upon the mountains were lush forests, down in the valley were layers after layers of beautiful terraces. The perennial gurgling stream strung the forests, villages, terraces and rivers perfectly together. It is amid such a beautiful environment that the Hani ethnic group has passed thousands of years. Taking advantage of natural conditions and endowments and fully exerting their intelligence and persistence, the Hani people have written their own culture and history marking the transformation from a nomadic group to a farming one. They have also created the Hani terraces, a magnificent and ecological miracle of agricultural civilization.

Xi Jinping’s important statements on the reform of the system for developing an ecological civilization form an important part of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, and serve as the fundamental guideline for ecological progress toward building a beautiful China. Therefore, studying the evolution, basic content, main features and historical contributions of Xi Jinping’s important statements on the reform of the system for developing an ecological civilization has important practical significance and theoretical value.

The Master Plan for Reform of the System for Developing an Ecological Civilization, introduced in 2015, systematically charts the framework and reform path of China’s system for building an ecological civilization, clarifies eight institutional areas and 47 items, and is a fundamental guideline for advancing the reform of the system for developing an ecological civilization. It is followed by a series of special plans for the reform, numbered nearly 50 so far, and covering the main areas of ecological conservation such as general affairs, resources, environment, ecology, and space. These plans are directional and pioneering documents to advance the system reform and construction for building an ecological civilization from different angles and aspects. Especially those about performance evaluation and accountability play an extremely important role in transforming the mindset about development and the assessment methods, and increasing efforts in accountability for environmental protection. At the same time, more and more supporting policies have been rolled out to accelerate ecological progress. While continuing to advance the reform of system for building an ecological civilization, departments and localities have continuously introduced their own supporting policies in the form of notices and decisions for the effective implementation of the system reform.

General Secretary Xi Jinping of the CPC Central Committee once emphasized that, “Ecological and environmental protection must rely on the institutions and the rule of law. Only the most rigorous institutions and rule of law can provide a reliable guarantee for ecological progress.” A hallmark of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization is its insistent call for legalizing and institutionalizing ecological and environmental protection and using legal weapons to fight pollution, and rule of law to protect the environment. The procuratorial organs are legal supervision organs stipulated in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, represent the public interest, and shoulder major missions and responsibilities in promoting ecological progress in accordance with the law. As an important force in promoting the rule of law and protecting the ecological environment in China, procuratorial organs should strengthen legal supervision in practice to safeguard ecological progress.

The Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization lays the fundamental guideline for China to construct its environmental public interest litigation (EPIL) system. To follow Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization is to consciously implement its scientific outlook on nature, on ecological democracy, on green development, and on law-based ecological protection in the construction and improvement of the EPIL system. To this end, we must continue to safeguard the public interest and uphold the democratic concept of co-governance for all, prioritize prevention, safeguard national ecological security, scientifically construct a public interest litigation (PIL) system and improve relevant measures. The ultimate goal is to make EPIL a powerful weapon for building a beautiful China, a key to joint environmental protection for all, and an important means for the people’s courts to participate in state governance.

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.

The guiding role of the rule-of-law thinking is crucial to promoting ecological conservation. With the ecological civilization drive unfolds, it’s imperative to seek institutional and policy innovation to promote institutionalized and law-based practices, strengthen national and local legislation, exercise strict law enforcement, and ramp up judicial support for ecological protection. China’s current law-based ecological progress is mainly reflected in such areas as the policy system, legal sources, administration, and judicial remedies, and basically the rule of law in this regard is progressing in both breadth and depth.

Ecological civilization is a new form of civilization after the primitive civilization, agricultural civilization, and industrial civilization, and is also known as “green civilization.” Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the content of ecological civilization has been continuously enriched and its status has become more prominent. Especially in 2018, ecological civilization was officially written into the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, marking the formal completion of the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan. Green development has become an inevitable requirement for building an ecological civilization, and is an engine for and effective path to ecological progress. Law, as a regulatory means formulated or approved by the state and enforced by the coercive force of the state, plays a decisive role in promoting ecological progress and green development.

Increasingly recognized by the international community, the Chinese paradigm for the building and development of ecological civilization provides a direction and approach for global transition from industrial civilization to ecological civilization. China has done a great job in low-carbon development and climate change mitigation, and has made outstanding contributions to achieving the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations. At the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are five dimensions—people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership, collectively known as the 5P’s—for achieving harmony between man and nature. We can say that the action plan proposed in the Agenda goes beyond the three pillars of “economy, society, and environment” under industrial civilization, and it involves China’s great contributions to establishing ecological civilization. If industrial civilization could be regarded as a revolutionary innovation in human development by the West, then China’s building of ecological civilization would be a fundamental contribution to global sustainable development by adding Eastern wisdom to the cause.

Promoting the building of ecological civilization while taking the path of sustainable development in a green and low-carbon circle is China’s basic strategy to reduce the ever-increasing resource and environmental constraints and build a socialist modern power in a new era. It is also a global response to ecological crisis, among which climate change is the most serious threat, to achieve harmony between man and nature as well as the sustainable development of human society. China should follow Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization to thoroughly improve its ecological environment and build a beautiful China, while contributing its wisdom and approach to help preserve the earth’s ecology, and taking the lead in building global ecological civilization.

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Central Committee has been attaching great importance to the building of ecological civilization with unprecedented theoretical vigor and promotion efforts as well as in-depth reform. China is a large country bordering the ocean that has a significant strategic role in ensuring national security, promoting economic and social development, building an ecological civilization, and advancing cultural prosperity. Enhancing marine habitat protection is an important part of building an ecological civilization and building China as a maritime power, and it is also of great significance to creating a beautiful China. Moreover, marine ecological and environmental issues have formed a bottleneck and shortcomings that delay the economic and social development of China’s coastal areas. To atone for the above shortcomings and solve the marine environmental problems that the people are deeply concerned about, we should follow General Secretary Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization and important expositions on building China as a maritime power as a guide, respecting, conforming to and preserving the ocean to protect and improve the marine ecological environment—a responsibility which we should take to enhance China to a maritime power and build a beautiful China, and which is also related to the welfare and future of the people.

With experience in international climate negotiations, China has gained an increasingly mature concept of climate governance. From the initial emphasis on “impossibility” to undertaking emission reduction obligations, then the belief that mandatory emission reductions are “inappropriate,” to setting voluntary quantitative emission reduction targets and the 2030 carbon emissions peak, China has shifted from a passive follower to an active leader in global climate governance, thus showing its willingness to take responsibility for emission reduction.

On June 7, 2019, President Xi Jinping delivered a speech titled “Insisting on Sustainable Development and Creating a Prosperous World” at the 23rd plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

It has been 27 years since international climate governance was established in 1992 when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, hereafter referred to as the Convention) was signed following the enhanced climate and environmental awareness of the international community in the 1980s.

China is a country that has a vast territory, with great differences in various regions in terms of economic and social development, natural resources, and the diversity and fragility of the ecosystem.

Gansu is located at the intersection of the Loess Plateau, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the Inner Mongolian Plateau, and within the catchments of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the inland river. It is an important water conservation and replenishment region for the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, and also a blocking area where the Tengger, Badain Jaran and Kumtag Deserts converge and turn southwards.