Cai Huajie: Comprehensive Green Transformation in the Context of Chinese Modernization
Promoting the comprehensive green transition of economic and social development is not only an important hallmark of the Party's new concepts and practices in national governance in the New Era, but also a key link for achieving high-quality development and the fundamental policy for resolving China's resource, environmental, and ecological issues. Currently, the academic community has conducted discussions around the great significance, key paths, and guarantee mechanisms of this transition. We must further compare this with the international community's discourse on green transition, seriously study the ideological viewpoints contained in the first volume of the Selected Works of Xi Jinping on Ecological Civilization (hereafter referred to as the Selected Works), and understand the deep connotations of this major deployment within the unique context of Chinese-path modernization, so as to grasp the direction and thinking of the transition.
At present, three main discourses on green transition exist in the international community. The first is the discourse of green capitalist transition; the second is the discourse of ecocentrist transition; and the third is the discourse of ecosocialist transition. These three discourses are intertwined and contest one another, constituting the complex context of the global green transition. However, the practice of the comprehensive green transition of China's economic and social development cannot be explained or guided by the aforementioned discourses. It can neither follow the logic of "de-ideologized" ecological imperialism based on Western-centrism, nor can it follow the extreme environmentalism of "de-modernization" and "de-capitalization" that is detached from reality. The Selected Works points out that "Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature." This not only means that advancing Chinese-path modernization must accelerate the comprehensive green transition of our country’s economic and social development, but also that Chinese-path modernization itself constitutes the regulatory background for this comprehensive green transition. We should consciously place this transition within the unique process of Chinese-path modernization and the political, economic, and cultural context it generates for interpretation. We must profoundly recognize that this is a transitional path of Chinese-path modernization characterized by harmony between humanity and nature, which possesses Chinese characteristics and makes an outstanding contribution to the world.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Chinese-path modernization is socialist modernization led by the Communist Party of China. This is a qualitative statement about Chinese-path modernization; it is what governs the whole and governs what is fundamental." This sentence reveals the fundamental attributes of Chinese-path modernization from a holistic perspective and in its most essential sense. To accurately grasp the deep connotation of our country's comprehensive green transition of economic and social development in this context, we must base ourselves on this fundamental attribute and understand its transitional characteristics in a normative sense. This can be elucidated through the three keywords contained therein: "Communist Party of China," "socialism," and "modernization."
The comprehensive green transition of our country's economic and social development is a transition jointly promoted by top-level design under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the orderly participation of the masses. International transitional narratives often appeal to "bottom-up" dynamic mechanisms, placing the hope for the green transition of economic and social development on the spontaneous actions of grassroots communities. However, such paths often find it difficult to achieve real breakthroughs due to a lack of systemic change and institutional guarantees. In contrast, the dynamic mechanism of our country's comprehensive green transition of economic and social development contains the core leadership role of the Communist Party of China and the subjective constructive power of the broadest masses of the people. On the one hand, the Party has accelerated the promotion of the top-level design and institutional system construction for ecological civilization, putting forward target tasks such as "accelerating the comprehensive green transition of economic and social development" and making corresponding deployments. Various regions and departments have clarified key tasks for the comprehensive green transition and effectively implemented the major deployments of the Party Central Committee in light of their respective realities. The Communist Party of China has played the role of "keeping the overall situation in mind and coordinating all parties," [1] implementing the Party's leadership through the entire process and all aspects of the comprehensive green transition. On the other hand, a good ecological environment is the fairest public product and the most inclusive welfare for the people's livelihood. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "we must transform the building of a Beautiful China into the conscious action of all people." Therefore, the realization of the comprehensive green transition of economic and social development also requires the joint participation and joint construction of the masses to achieve shared enjoyment. The Selected Works points out, "Only when everyone takes a hand and everyone fulfill their responsibilities, stimulating the endogenous drive of the whole society to jointly protect the ecological environment, can the sky over the Chinese land remain blue forever, the green mountains remain always, and the clear waters flow eternally." In this way, the comprehensive green transition of our country's economic and social development organically integrates the political leadership of the Communist Party of China with the social vitality of broad public participation, giving full play to the institutional advantage of mobilizing resources to accomplish major undertakings while effectively stimulating endogenous social drive and grassroots innovation vitality.
The comprehensive green transition of our country's economic and social development is a transition that reforms systems and mechanisms that do not adapt to green development requirements within the framework of the socialist system. The transition narrative of green capitalism avoids the contradiction between the expansiveness of capitalism and the finiteness of resources and the environment; it even attempts to package capitalism, which pursues infinite economic growth, as a solution to the ecological crisis. The Selected Works does not lack reflections on the capitalist development model, arguing that Western modernization "while creating huge material wealth, often caused serious problems such as environmental pollution and resource exhaustion." The comprehensive green transition of our country's economic and social development resolutely rejects the old Western modernization path of capital-centrism, materialist expansion, and "pollute first, treat later" [2]. It clearly refuses to become a "garbage dump" or "sewage pool" for Western countries to transfer pollution and waste. It is committed to deepening the reform of the system of ecological civilization within the framework of the socialist system. Therefore, the comprehensive green transition of our country's economic and social development is not a transition to the "evil path" [3] of capitalism, but the self-perfection and development of the socialist system in the green dimension. This means that this profound transformation, regardless of its breadth or depth, must move in the same direction and integrate with the basic systems of the economy, politics, society, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics. For example, in the field of economic construction, unlike the transition toward full privatization of natural resources required by green capitalism, China must adhere to the main principle of "public ownership of resources" in the design of the unified registration of natural resource rights—that is, adhering to the socialist public ownership of natural resources. On the basis of adhering to this principle, we must clarify the reform requirements to "improve the natural resource asset property rights system and management system, and improve the entrusted agency mechanism for the ownership of natural resource assets owned by the whole people," thereby solving the institutional and mechanical problems of unclear powers and responsibilities between the central and local governments in the management of property rights for natural resource assets owned by the whole people.
The comprehensive green transition of our country's economic and social development is a transition in which high-quality development and high-level protection complement and reinforce each other. The transition narratives of ecocentrism and ecosocialism have both failed to crack the "world-class puzzle" of the "relationship between development and protection," falling into the rut of "de-modernization" and "de-capitalization" by unilaterally pursuing environmental protection. Chinese-path modernization shares common characteristics with the modernization of all countries; that is, it has achieved rapid economic development and created a wealth of material and spiritual assets during the modernization process. The comprehensive green transition of our country's economic and social development must likewise create more material and spiritual wealth to meet the people’s growing needs for a better life. Our transition does not aim to discard economic development and technological innovation; rather, it adheres to the concept emphasized many times in the Selected Works that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" [4]. We seek to "promote development to achieve effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth within the green transition," and "synergistically promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth" [5] during the transition, correctly handling the "relationship between development and protection." At the same time, unlike the "de-capitalization" narrative, our country's comprehensive green transition faces up to various forms of capital existing under the conditions of a socialist market economy, giving full play to the positive role of capital as a factor of production. By improving market-based mechanisms for green transition, we explore sustainable paths for realizing the value of ecological products led by the government with the participation of enterprises and all sectors of society, comprehensively establish ecological protection compensation mechanisms, guide capital toward green and low-carbon fields, and promote the optimization and upgrading of industrial structures. It is precisely in the process of effectively harnessing capital that our country's economic and social development achieves a comprehensive green transition, adheres to the requirements of a safe transition, coordinately handles the relationship between development and emission reduction, and achieves the unity of material wealth accumulation and ecological environmental protection.