Zhang Youguo: Striking the Right Balance Between High-Quality Development and High-Level Protection
General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "Handling the relationship between development and protection well is a global challenge and an eternal task facing the development of human society." Whether we can properly handle the relationship between high-quality development and high-level protection concerns the success or failure of the great cause of comprehensively advancing the building of a strong nation and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through a Chinese-path modernization. Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization [1], founded on the induction and synthesis of the laws governing ecological progress, systematically answers major theoretical and practical questions such as what kind of ecological civilization to build and how to build it. It clearly proposes a series of strategic measures, providing the fundamental following and guide to action for solving this difficult problem. Scientifically grasping the relationship between high-quality development and high-level protection is an important thread for profoundly understanding and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization.
The Synchronous Advancement of Both is Both Necessary and Feasible
High-quality development means enabling development to better meet the people's ever-growing needs for a better life and more fully implementing the New Development Philosophy [2]. That is, it means making the innovative pulse of development stronger, its green form more pervasive, its coordinated characteristics more prominent, its level of openness higher, and its degree of sharing more complete, thereby achieving an effective enhancement in the quality of development alongside reasonable growth in its quantity. High-level protection means the integrated protection and systematic governance of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts [3]. It involves continuously improving environmental quality and the diversity, stability, and sustainability of ecosystems, making the sky bluer, the land greener, the water clearer, and the scenery more beautiful. This allows more of the masses to see the mountains and the water and to remember their nostalgia [4], steadily realizing the goals for building a Beautiful China. Synchronous advancement implies that the synergy and unity between high-quality development and high-level protection are continuously strengthened, allowing the socio-economic system and the ecological environment system to be elevated and optimized together. The report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC proposed "coordinating industrial structure adjustment, pollution control, ecological protection, and responding to climate change, and synergistically promoting carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth," which clarified the specific requirements and key tasks for the synchronous advancement of high-quality development and high-level protection.
High-quality development and high-level protection possess a dialectical unity; their synchronous advancement is not only essential but also highly feasible. First, both jointly serve to meet the people's ever-growing needs for a better life and to better advance Chinese-path modernization. High-quality development will form a high-quality, efficient, and diversified supply system, providing more premium products and services to meet people's needs and creating a massive material civilization to support Chinese-path modernization. A good ecological environment formed through high-level protection is the fairest public good and the most universal welfare for the people's wellbeing; it is the fundamental guarantee for realizing a Chinese-path modernization characterized by harmony between humanity and nature. Second, the two complement and reinforce each other. Green development is the defining feature of high-quality development, and promoting the green and low-carbon transition of economic and social development is a key link in achieving high-quality development. High-quality development helps alleviate pressure on high-level protection from the source while providing strong material investment guarantees. High-level protection aims to solve problems faced during the process of high-quality development and provides ecological environmental security for it. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "high-quality development that prioritizes ecology, greenness, and low-carbon can only be realized through high-level protection." The synchronous advancement of high-quality development and high-level protection is a vivid embodiment of the "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" [5] concept and a scientific choice that follows the internal laws of this concept. Finally, both evolve and interact under the unified leadership of the Party, possessing a sound foundation for synchronous advancement in terms of top-level design, strategic planning, institutional arrangements, policy incentives, and organizational guarantees.
Utilizing "Industrial Ecologization" and "Ecological Industrialization" as Key Grips
Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization provides the fundamental following for synchronously advancing high-quality development and high-level protection. Simply put, this means adhering to the "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" concept to promote industrial ecologization and ecological industrialization. High-quality development must proceed from the long-term interests of the Chinese nation and follow a path of ecological priority and green development. High-level protection must protect natural value and increase natural capital, allowing lucid waters and lush mountains to produce immense ecological, economic, and social benefits.
Stand at the height of harmony between humanity and nature to earnestly integrate ecological civilization construction into all aspects and the whole process of economic, political, social, and cultural construction, continuously enhancing the potential and stamina of development. The key is to scientifically formulate development plans based on the carrying capacity of resources and the environment, developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions, and accelerating the construction of a green, low-carbon, and circular economic system. We must move quickly to build a market-oriented green technology innovation system, vigorously improve the level of green technology, form green and low-carbon production methods, and continuously improve land and resource utilization efficiency. We should transform traditional industries with advanced green technologies, actively develop energy-saving and environmental protection industries such as new energy, and accelerate the construction of a green and low-carbon industrial system. We must refine the waste recycling system, promoting the large-scale, standardized, and intelligent utilization of resources, and strengthening the circular link between production and living systems. We must accelerate the construction of green consumption, investment, and trade systems, using strong green demand to pull supply-side green reforms. Furthermore, we must establish and refine a system of laws, regulations, fiscal policies, taxation, finance, investment, pricing, government procurement, market trading systems, standard systems, and official performance evaluation systems that support green and low-carbon development.
Shape new momentum and advantages for development through high-level protection. First, promote high-level protection using a systems perspective to continuously improve the "green productivity" that drives high-quality development. In the process of actively and steadily promoting carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, continuing to fight the tough battle against pollution, and scientifically promoting ecosystem protection and restoration, we must maintain strategic resolve and achieve clear results. Second, protect the ecological environment with the strictest systems and the most rigorous rule of law, forcing a comprehensive green transition of economic and social development. By implementing the fixed pollution source supervision system centered on discharge permits, the ecological protection red line management system, the total resource volume management and rigid constraint system, and the Central Ecological and Environmental Protection Inspection system, we make ecological environmental factors a "hard constraint" and a regularized external pressure on development. This will significantly enhance the competitiveness of green technology innovation and the eco-environmental industry, thereby stimulating a strong endogenous impetus for green development across society. Third, actively explore mechanisms to realize the value of ecological products, transforming ecological environmental advantages into development advantages. Through measures such as investigating and monitoring ecological products to clarify the "family baseline," establishing value evaluation systems and accounting norms for ecological products, creating "ecology+" industrial and value chains according to local conditions, promoting the trading of ecological resource rights and interests, and improving compensation mechanisms for ecological protection, we can release the immense productive forces inherent in the ecological environment.
Give full play to the synergistic effect of a "promising government" and an "effective market." On one hand, further strengthen and improve the institutional arrangements for the Party's leadership over high-quality development and high-level protection, leading all regions, departments, fields, and industries to completely, accurately, and comprehensively implement the New Development Philosophy. Strengthen policy coordination between departments and regions to enhance the consistency between socio-economic development policies and ecological environmental protection policies. On the other hand, accelerate the construction of a unified national large market—including resource and environmental factors—and the construction of basic market economy systems, synchronously advancing high-quality development and high-level protection while constructing the new development pattern.
Synergistically Promoting Development and Protection to Aid the Green Transition
Under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, China's ecological civilization construction has undergone historical, transformative, and overall changes in both theory and practice, and solid steps have been taken in synergistically promoting development and protection. Since the dawn of the New Era, the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan has clarified the strategic significance of synchronously advancing high-quality development and high-level protection, and green development and ecological priority have become basic principles of major national development strategies and plans. From the central government to local authorities and across various industries, a series of powerful measures have been introduced and implemented focusing on promoting the comprehensive green transition of economic and social development and establishing a green, low-carbon, and circular economic system. These have provided strong support for the continuous advancement of China's ecological civilization construction and related major strategic tasks. The synergy between high-quality development and high-level protection is gradually increasing, with the green and low-carbon characteristics of high-quality development becoming increasingly evident. The rate of decline in China's energy intensity and carbon emission intensity has been remarkable, placing it at the forefront of the world. Accompanying stable economic growth has been a rapid decline in pollutant emissions, while the overall scale and competitiveness of the new energy and new energy vehicle industries continue to lead. Meanwhile, the foundational supporting role of ecological civilization construction for high-quality development is becoming increasingly apparent. With the deepening of the battle against pollution and ecosystem restoration, the quality of China's ecological environment has significantly improved. This not only provides a beautiful and comfortable living environment for the masses but also promotes the development of ecological industries such as eco-agriculture, eco-manufacturing, and eco-tourism, creating immense eco-economic effects.
Chinese-path modernization is a modernization of harmony between humanity and nature. Respecting, conforming to, and protecting nature are inherent requirements for comprehensively building a modern socialist country. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Throughout the entire process of Chinese-path modernization, we must all grasp the dialectical unity between high-quality development and high-level protection." Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization is the general policy, basis, and requirement for planning ecological civilization construction, demonstrating the practical power of scientific theory in guiding China's green transition. By deeply studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, continuously deepening our understanding of the laws of ecological progress in the New Era, and adhering to the synchronous advancement of high-quality development and high-level protection, we will surely make greater contributions to advancing Chinese-path modernization.