Hu Jun: Deeply Grasping the Connotation and Significance of the Ecological and Environmental Protection Inspection System
Central ecological environmental protection inspection is a major institutional innovation personally planned, deployed, and promoted by General Secretary Xi Jinping. Since the pilot launch of central ecological environmental protection inspections in 2015, ten years of continuous exploration and innovative development have resulted in a mature and complete system of norms, becoming a landmark achievement in the theoretical, practical, and institutional innovation of ecological civilization construction. Recently, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Regulations on Ecological Environmental Protection Inspection Work (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), further consolidating the theoretical and practical experience of ecological environmental protection inspection in the form of intra-Party regulations. We must take the in-depth study and implementation of the Regulations as an opportunity to profoundly understand and grasp the connotations and significance of the ecological environmental protection inspection system, better utilize the "sharp sword" role of inspection, and provide an important political guarantee for building a Beautiful China characterized by harmony between humanity and nature.
We must adhere to the political attributes of inspection, press home the political responsibility for ecological civilization construction, and give full play to the political advantages and the greatest systemic strengths of the Party’s leadership. The Party’s comprehensive leadership is the fundamental guarantee for ecological civilization construction. Ecological civilization construction is a vital component of the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan and the Four Comprehensives strategic layout, constituting a long-term strategic task. Only by exerting the Party’s core leadership role in overseeing the overall situation and coordinating all parties can we effectively break through the institutional and mechanistic obstacles restricting ecological civilization construction, form a synergy for such construction, and ensure that it achieves steady and sustained progress. As an important institutional tool for the Party Central Committee to advance ecological civilization construction, central ecological environmental protection inspection begins by pressing home the political responsibility of leading cadres at all levels for ecological environmental protection. It further promotes the major shift in ecological environmental protection from "departmental responsibility" to "equal responsibility for Party and government" and "two responsibilities for one post" [1]. The promulgation of the Regulations is not only conducive to further guiding and urging all regions and departments to align their thoughts and actions with the decision-making and deployments of the Party Central Committee, but also to further enhancing the Party's capacity to lead ecological civilization construction. It is an inevitable requirement and an important measure for persisting in and strengthening the Party’s comprehensive leadership over ecological civilization construction. We must firmly grasp the "ox’s nose" [2] of the responsibility system, strengthen "political inspection" and "political health checks" regarding ecological civilization construction, improve the execution of the Party Central Committee’s decisions and deployments on ecological civilization, and continuously solidify the political responsibility, leadership responsibility, and primary responsibility for ecological environmental protection.
We must adhere to a people-centered approach, promote the resolution of prominent ecological environmental issues in the immediate vicinity of the masses, and consolidate the ecological foundation for the Party’s long-term governance. A sound ecological environment is the most universal welfare for people's livelihoods, and the people’s standpoint is the fundamental standpoint of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization. In leading the people to build an ecological civilization, the Party always adheres to the principles of benefiting the people through ecology, serving the people through ecology, and acting for the people through ecology. It focuses more on meeting the people's needs for a beautiful ecological environment and ensures that the fruits of ecological civilization construction are shared by the people. Ecological environmental protection inspection work adheres to the people’s standpoint, focusing on issues such as air pollution, water pollution, and noise disturbance. It dares to "move the real and hit the hard" [3] to effectively resolve the pain points and difficulties of the ecological environment surrounding the general public. Over the past decade, central ecological environmental protection inspections have completed two rounds of full coverage, and the third round has completed three batches of inspection tasks. A cumulative total of over 340,000 environmental complaints from the masses have been accepted and transferred for handling, achieving significant results characterized by "central affirmation, public praise, support from all sides, and problem resolution." The people have truly felt fairness and justice through the continuous improvement of ecological environmental quality. The Regulations list "prominent ecological environmental problems reflected strongly by the masses and their handling" as a key content of inspection. At the same time, they widely accept petitions and reports from the masses, and promptly disclose inspection conditions, contents, and typical cases of prominent problems to the public. this protects the people’s right to know, participate in, and supervise ecological environmental matters. It further implements, through institutional forms, the principles that development is for the people, relies on the people, its fruits are shared by the people, and its effectiveness is judged by the people within the construction of ecological civilization. We must always take meeting the people's needs for a beautiful ecological environment as the starting point and ultimate goal of inspection, practice the Party's mass line in the New Era, and test the effectiveness of inspection through the effectiveness of ecological environmental protection, ensuring that the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security regarding the ecological environment is more substantial, better guaranteed, and more sustainable.
We must adhere to a systems perspective, base ourselves on the overall situation while serving the big picture, coordinately promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth, and promote high-quality development supported by high-level protection. A systems perspective is an important methodology of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization. Building an ecological civilization involves various fields and aspects including economy, politics, rule of law, culture, people's livelihoods, society, ecology, and security. It concerns the overall situation of economic and social development and is a difficult and complex systemic project. We must consider the integrity, systematicity, and inherent laws of the economic-social and ecological systems, placing more emphasis on integrated governance, systemic governance, and governance at the source. From the beginning of its trial implementation, central ecological environmental protection inspection has focused on combining the promotion of high-quality development with the resolution of prominent ecological environmental problems, and linking ecological environmental protection with major national regional strategies. It adheres to systemic treatment and addressing both symptoms and root causes, coordinating the integrated protection and restoration of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts, and promoting the coordinated development of the economy, society, and ecological environmental protection. The Regulations include "adhering to serving the big picture and establishing a systems perspective" as one of the important principles of inspection. They take the promotion of modernization characterized by harmony between humanity and nature as an important goal, clarifying that inspection focuses on the construction of a Beautiful China, the promotion of high-quality development, the implementation of major regional strategies, and the major issues in the comprehensive green transition of economic and social development. They coordinately advance river basin inspections and provincial-level inspections, forming mechanisms for joint prevention and control of the ecological environment and coordinated management of river basins. We must adhere to systemic thinking, strengthen top-level design and overall coordination, and accurately grasp the requirements for carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth. We should focus on major regional strategies such as the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, and the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River basin. We must keep a close watch on the implementation of ecological environmental protection requirements during inspections, making inspection a powerful tool for promoting high-quality development.
We must adhere to reliance on systems and the rule of law, using legal thinking and legal methods to advance inspection work, and firmly establish the rigidity and authority of the central ecological environmental protection inspection system. Protecting the ecological environment with the strictest systems and the most rigorous rule of law is the institutional guarantee for ecological civilization construction. A sound ecological environment is the fairest public product and possesses typical characteristics of externalities. We must rely on external constraints to regulate human behavior and activities, avoid "bad money driving out good" [4], and ensure the authority, seriousness, and continuity of ecological civilization construction. Central ecological environmental protection inspection is a vital link in the construction of the ecological civilization system. The concept of "governance according to law" runs through the entire process, emphasizing that power entails responsibility, responsibility entails accountability, and failure to fulfill responsibility must be prosecuted. This reflects the firm determination of the Party Central Committee to strictly use systems to manage power and officials, and to protect the blue skies and increase greenery. Over the past decade, from the issuance of the Environmental Protection Inspection Plan (Trial) to the Provisions on Central Ecological Environmental Protection Inspection Work, the Measures for Rectification of Central Ecological Environmental Protection Inspections, and finally the issuance of the Regulations, the central ecological environmental protection inspection system has been continuously enriched and improved, and inspection work has become more standardized, institutionalized, and law-based. The Regulations specify "adhering to rules and laws, achieving precision, science, objectivity, and fairness," and incorporate the implementation of intra-Party regulations, laws, and policies regarding ecological environmental protection into the focus of inspection work. This further implements the requirements for comprehensively governing the country according to law, improves the ecological civilization institutional system, and provides basic support for promoting the steady and sustained progress of ecological environmental protection inspection on the track of the rule of law. We must carry out inspections with legal concepts and methods, organize accountability and inquiry in a serious, precise, and effective manner according to rules, discipline, and law, consciously accept supervision from all sides, strictly prevent problems of formalism in inspection, and ensure that inspection results can withstand the test of time, thereby promoting more significant political, economic, environmental, and social effects of the inspection.
We must adhere to reform and innovation, be adept at self-improvement, adapt to the practical development of ecological civilization construction, and ensure that the central ecological environmental protection inspection system remains full of vigor and vitality. Upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground is a distinct character of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization. Only by upholding the fundamentals can we ensure that ecological civilization construction always moves in the right direction; only through continuous innovation can we respond to reality's needs and create a new situation for the construction of a Beautiful China. Currently, the structural, root-cause, and trend-based pressures on ecological environmental protection have not been fundamentally alleviated. Ecological civilization construction is still in a critical period where pressures overlap and we move forward under a heavy burden. We must continue to promote innovative concepts, systems, and practices to break through the bottlenecks of ecological civilization development and achieve a fundamental improvement in ecological environmental quality. Based on basic national conditions, central ecological environmental protection inspection has systematically summarized the institutional experience of ecological civilization construction, absorbed advanced institutional concepts, and continuously optimized its own systems and mechanisms. It has built a closed-loop management system composed of inspection leadership, inspection targets and content, inspection organization, inspection rectification, and the application of inspection results, making the inspection system more mature and finalized. At the same time, this institutional innovation implements a two-tier inspection system at the central and provincial (including autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) levels. It enhances the deterrent effect through special inspections and ecological environment warning films, and scientifically utilizes digital technologies such as big data and remote sensing monitoring to analyze and discover clues to problems. This further improves and innovates the forms and means of inspection, achieving an enhancement in the quality and efficiency of inspection work. We must persist in taking Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization as our guide, strengthen the innovative development of the inspection system, further improve normalized and long-term mechanisms, and perfect the inspection system system—led by the Regulations, guaranteed by basic systems, and supported by templates and paradigms. This will promote the continuous transformation of inspection governance efficacy into a strong momentum for high-quality development and solid support for high-level protection.