Zhao Zhonghua and Chen Zongbo: Persisting in Chinese-path Modernization Characterized by the Harmonious Coexistence Between Humanity and Nature
The report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC pointed out that Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature. This significant proposition profoundly reflects the Communist Party of China’s deep insight into the laws of modernization and its precise grasp of the development trends of human society. Marxist dialectics of nature, which emphasizes the dialectical unity between humanity and nature, provides the theoretical foundation for the concept of harmony between humanity and nature.
Ecological wisdom from traditional Chinese culture, such as "the unity of heaven and humanity" [1] and "mutual benefit between heaven and humanity," provides rich cultural nourishment for this concept. On the new journey of the New Era, we must persist in taking Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization as our guide. We must accurately grasp the primary significance, principled requirements, and practical key points of promoting harmony between humanity and nature, and unswervingly follow the road of Chinese-path modernization characterized by harmony between humanity and nature.
Profoundly Grasping the Primary Significance of Harmony Between Humanity and Nature
Nature is the basic condition upon which humanity depends for survival and development. Harmony between humanity and nature means one must respect, adapt to, and protect nature, integrating one's own development into the virtuous cycle of the natural ecosystem, and achieving the simultaneous advancement of rising living standards and increased ecological capacity.
Grasp this from the height of the sustainable development of the Chinese nation. The relationship between humanity and nature is the most basic relationship in human society. Since their birth, humans have been closely linked with nature, and modernization has made this link even closer and deeper. The historical process of Western modernization provides us with many profound lessons. The endless pursuit of interests by Western countries caused them to consume massive amounts of resources and energy and wantonly destroy the ecological environment while creating material wealth. This led to resource depletion, environmental pollution, and ecological imbalance. Unrestrained extraction from nature brought serious trauma to the ecological environment and posed a severe threat to human survival and development. China’s basic national conditions—a large population, relatively insufficient resources, and weak environmental carrying capacity—determine that Chinese-path modernization must forge a path of harmony between humanity and nature. We must stand at the strategic height of the sustainable development of the Chinese nation, adhering to the principles of prioritizing conservation, protection, and natural restoration. We must "protect nature and the ecological environment as one protects one's own eyes, and unswervingly follow a path of civilized development characterized by productive development, affluent life, and a sound ecosystem."
Grasp this from the height of the laws governing the development of human civilization. "When the ecology flourishes, civilization flourishes; when the ecology declines, civilization declines." [2] This important judgment reflects the philosophical thinking of traditional Chinese culture, incorporates the philosophical mindset of Marxist historical materialism and dialectical materialism, and reveals a profound truth of human civilization's development. The ecological environment is the foundation of human survival and development; changes in the ecology directly affect the rise and fall of civilizations. For instance, the four great ancient civilizations all prospered due to superior ecological environments, but over time, as some countries engaged in irrational exploitation and utilization, the environment deteriorated, leading to the decline of those civilizations. Looking at the modern era, some once-brilliant civilizations have also fallen into difficulty due to neglecting ecological protection. Therefore, we must recognize that protecting the ecological environment is protecting human civilization, while destroying the environment is destroying civilization. In the process of promoting Chinese-path modernization, we must profoundly grasp the laws of human civilization's development, persist in harmony between humanity and nature, and promote a comprehensive green transition of economic and social development. We must ensure that a good ecological environment becomes a growth point for the people's happy lives, a supporting point for sustained and healthy economic and social development, and a focal point for demonstrating China’s positive image.
Grasp this from the height of building a community with a shared future for humanity. The development of globalization has made all countries interdependent and shared in both joy and sorrow; ecological issues have become problems that transcend class, nation, ideology, and social systems—they are problems faced by all of humanity. Environmental issues such as atmospheric pollution and climate change not only affect a country's own economic and social development and the quality of life of its people but also cause damage to the stability of the global ecosystem and the common interests of humanity. For example, greenhouse gas emissions lead to global warming, which in turn triggers frequent extreme weather events and rising sea levels, having a profound impact on the global environment and socio-economic development. Therefore, the emphasis of Chinese-path modernization on harmony between humanity and nature is based not only on the needs of China’s own development but also on global ecological security and the common wellbeing of humanity, contributing Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to the construction of a community with a shared future for humanity.
Profoundly Grasping the Principled Requirements of Harmony Between Humanity and Nature
The principled requirements of harmony between humanity and nature involve persisting in the organic unity of worldview and methodology, providing scientific guidance and norms of action for promoting Chinese-path modernization.
Persist in the supremacy of the people. The essence of governance lies in the hearts of the people. With economic and social development, the people's aspiration for a better life is increasingly growing, including their expectation for a good ecological environment. Environmental issues have increasingly become important livelihood issues. There is still a significant gap between China’s ecological environment and the people's expectations for a better life. Accelerating the improvement of ecological quality and promoting harmony between humanity and nature has become the common cry of the people in their pursuit of a high-quality life. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "a good ecological environment is the most universal wellbeing for the people's livelihoods," [3] profoundly revealing the close relationship between the environment and the people's lives. We must adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, prioritize the resolution of prominent environmental problems as a primary field of people's livelihood, and allow the masses to share the beauty of nature, life, and living amidst green mountains and clear waters. We must increase the intensity of ecological protection so that the people have a greater sense of gain, happiness, and security through environmental improvement.
Persist in green development. Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets [4]—this important judgment profoundly explicates the dialectical relationship between economic development and ecological protection. Green development is the key to solving the problem of harmony between humanity and nature and is an inherent requirement for building a modernization characterized by such harmony. The success or failure of ecological protection depends on the economic structure and development mode. Economic development should not be a matter of "draining the pond to catch the fish" [5] regarding resources and the environment, nor should ecological protection be a "climbing a tree to seek a fish" [6] by abandoning economic development; rather, we must protect during development and develop during protection. Practice has proved that to promote Chinese-path modernization, we must abandon the traditional extensive development model characterized by high consumption, high pollution, and low efficiency, and unswervingly follow the path of green development. We must accelerate the formation of green production and lifestyles, promote the optimization and upgrading of industrial structures, vigorously develop green industries, improve resource utilization efficiency, and reduce pollutant emission intensity. Meanwhile, we should strengthen scientific and technological innovation and promote the application of advanced energy-saving and environmental protection technologies to provide scientific support for green development. Through green development, we can achieve a benign interaction between economic development and ecological protection, allowing "lucid waters and lush mountains" to bring "invaluable assets" and injecting strong momentum into sustainable economic and social development.
Persist in holistic coordination. Adhering to a systems perspective and strengthening holistic coordination are scientific methods that must be maintained in promoting harmony between humanity and nature. Mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts [7] are interconnected and influence each other through energy flow and material cycles, forming a relationship that is both relatively independent and interdependent, jointly maintaining the normal operation of the Earth's ecosystem. Therefore, we must proceed from the integrity of the ecosystem, strengthening forward-looking thinking, overall planning, strategic layout, and holistic advancement. We must holistically consider various elements of the natural ecology—above and below the mountains, above and below the ground, land and sea, as well as the upper and lower reaches and left and right banks of river basins—conducting integrated protection, systematic restoration, and comprehensive management. At the same time, we must persist in correctly handling five major relationships: high-quality development and high-level protection, targeted breakthroughs and collaborative governance, natural restoration and artificial restoration, external constraints and internal momentum, and the "dual carbon" [8] commitment and autonomous action. By grasping these dialectical relationships and enhancing systematicity, integrity, and synergy, we can jointly promote the building of an ecological civilization and achieve the virtuous cycle and sustainable development of the ecosystem.
Profoundly Grasping the Practical Requirements of Harmony Between Humanity and Nature
Chinese-path modernization characterized by harmony between humanity and nature requires not only scientific concepts and correct principles but also the continuous strengthening of the Party's comprehensive leadership over ecological civilization construction, the further deepening of the reform of the ecological civilization system, the comprehensive promotion of the Beautiful China initiative, and continuous exploration and innovation in practice.
Improve the basic system of ecological civilization. The basic system of ecological civilization is the cornerstone for promoting ecological construction and harmony between humanity and nature. Currently, the basic framework of the ecological civilization system has been formed, but China’s ecological protection still faces structural, hormonal, and trend-based pressures, necessitating further improvement. On one hand, we must break down institutional and mechanistic obstacles. Traditional systems were established under traditional development models, and some have become obstacles to green development. We need to base ourselves on the development of ecological civilization to achieve historical changes, systematic reshaping, and holistic reconstruction. On the other hand, we must accelerate the formation of new institutional mechanisms. Ecological civilization is the spiritual essence of green development. Economic growth will rely more on new intangible productive forces such as technology, knowledge, ecology, and culture. Its development concepts, content, resource concepts, and organizational models differ greatly from the traditional economy. A green economy cannot emerge spontaneously under traditional systems; it requires new thoughts, concepts, and mechanisms to catalyze it. This requires deepening the reform of the ecological civilization system and building a systematic and complete institutional system. According to the important deployment made by the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, key tasks have been identified: implementing environmental management systems with regional, differentiated, and precise controls; improving monitoring and evaluation systems; establishing a unified and linked system for national territorial space use control and planning permits covering all areas and types; improving the property rights system and management system for natural resource assets; perfecting the coordination mechanism for national ecological security; and compiling an environmental code.
Perfect the ecological environmental governance system. The governance system is an important part of the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, and a key guarantee for promoting harmony between humanity and nature. Currently, China’s battle against pollution has reached a stalemate stage where "progress leads to victory, whereas retreat leads to failure," and where we are moving from quantitative change to qualitative change in environmental improvement. The foundation for the steady improvement of ecological quality is not yet solid; the total volume of pollutant emissions remains high; and environmental governance is characterized by numerous and widespread problem points, intertwined old and new contradictions, and cumulative pressures. We must continuously improve the governance system. We should start from "small incisions" [9], continuously improving systems and mechanisms for precise, scientific, and law-based pollution control, and fighting the battles to keep our skies blue, waters clear, and land pollution-free with higher standards. We must deeply implement ecological zoning controls and fulfill regional, differentiated, and precise requirements. We must comprehensively implement the pollutant discharge permit system, improve the supervision and enforcement system for discharging units based on permits, and implement the responsibility of enterprises to discharge according to their permits. We must persist in integrating upper and lower reaches, promoting joint river basin governance and regional joint prevention, and perfecting mechanisms for joint environmental protection. We should strengthen the prevention and control of environmental risks and the construction of emergency management systems, improving the ability to respond to sudden environmental incidents. We must also deepen the reform of the environmental supervision system, establish long-term mechanisms, extend supervision to the grassroots level, and enhance professionalization and scientific standards in governance.
Perfect the mechanisms for green and low-carbon development. Under the high degree of attention and resolute deployment of the CPC Central Committee, the pace of the green transition of development modes has significantly accelerated. The role of market-based allocation of environmental factors has notably increased, and the incentive effects of environmental economic policies have been greatly enhanced. However, some risks and challenges remain. Structural pressure on ecological protection is still high, especially regarding the severe situation of declining carbon intensity. The market mechanism for environmental factors is not yet perfect, and its role in optimizing allocation needs strengthening. The endogenous momentum for green and low-carbon development is insufficient, and the potential of market entities to drive this development has not been fully released. To perfect these mechanisms, we must persist in accelerating the construction of a green, low-carbon, and circular economic system, strengthen the thrifty and intensive circular use of resources, accelerate the planning and construction of a new energy system, and actively and steadily promote carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.
Chinese-path modernization characterized by harmony between humanity and nature is a major strategic thought and practical path proposed by the CPC, standing at the height of the sustainable development of the Chinese nation and the progress of human civilization to solve major problems facing human development. On the new journey of the New Era, we must gather forces from all sides to make new and greater contributions to building a Beautiful China and promoting the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation.