Yu Hai: A Good Ecological Environment is the Most Universal Public Welfare
The first volume of the Selected Works of Xi Jinping on Ecological Civilization is permeated throughout by a pro-people stance of ecological benefit for the people, ecological advantage for the people, and ecology for the people’s sake, vividly demonstrating General Secretary Xi Jinping’s profound and earnest concern for the masses. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that "a good ecological environment is the fairest public product and the most universal benefit for the people's wellbeing." This reflects the people-centered value orientation of the Communist Party of China. We must consistently persist in putting people first, continuously improve the quality of the ecological environment, and provide more high-quality ecological products, so that the masses can share in the beauty of nature, the beauty of life, and the beauty of living amidst lucid waters and lush mountains [1].
Environment is synonymous with people's wellbeing. The ecological environment is the foundation of human survival and development, directly affecting the quality of human existence. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "For human survival, while gold and silver mountains are certainly important, lucid waters and lush mountains are an essential component of the people's happy life, and something that money cannot replace." Ensuring that the common people can breathe fresh air, drink clean water, eat safe food, and live in a habitable environment has become a vital component of guaranteeing and improving people's wellbeing. Simultaneously, the ecological environment possesses an inherent public attribute; it is shared by all members of society, and no individual or organization may transfer potential environmental risks to others or to society in the pursuit of private interests. Protecting the ecological environment helps maintain social equity and justice, ensuring that the achievements of ecological civilization construction benefit all people more extensively and fairly.
Entering the New Era, the principal contradiction in Chinese society has evolved into the contradiction between the people's ever-growing need for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development [2]. The people's need for a beautiful ecological environment has become a significant aspect of this contradiction, and a good ecological environment is a priority area for enhancing the people's wellbeing. Satisfying the people's expectations for a beautiful ecological environment is a direct response to the most concerning, direct, and realistic interest issues of the masses; it holds significant practical importance for consolidating the Party's governing foundation and promoting social harmony and stability.
Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC [3], the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has persisted in the people-centered development philosophy. It has resolutely declared war on pollution, focused on resolving prominent environmental problems that harm the health of the masses, and accelerated the improvement of ecological environmental quality. This has led China's ecological civilization construction to achieve historic accomplishments, significantly enhancing the masses' sense of gain, happiness, and security regarding the ecological environment. In 2024, the average concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in cities at the prefecture level and above nationwide decreased to 29.3 micrograms per cubic meter; blue skies, white clouds, and twinkling stars have transformed from "luxuries" into "everyday items." The proportion of surface water sections with excellent or good quality reached 90.4%, and the human settlement environment has been greatly improved. Large-scale land greening actions and ecosystem restoration projects have been carried out, with the national forest coverage rate exceeding 25%. By the end of 2024, over 48,000 "pocket parks" and over 128,000 kilometers of greenways had been constructed. Seeing greenery upon opening a window, encountering scenery upon pushing open a door, and finding a park upon stepping outside have become standard features of a high-quality life. The achievements of ecological civilization construction in the New Era have attracted worldwide attention and are felt most directly and truly by the masses. National public satisfaction with the ecological environment has exceeded 90% for four consecutive years, fully demonstrating the people-oriented and practical nature of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization.
"What the people love, love it; what the people hate, hate it" [4]. On the new journey, the masses have higher expectations for the quality of the ecological environment and lower tolerance for ecological environmental problems; thus, ecological environmental protection has a long way to go. We must thoroughly implement Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, persist in being people-centered, and coordinate industrial structural adjustment, pollution control, ecological protection, and responses to climate change. We must better realize a virtuous interaction between high-level protection and high-quality development, transforming the blueprint for a Beautiful China into a tangible and accessible reality of happiness for all people. We must continue to deepen the "tough battle" against pollution [5], comprehensively and accurately implementing the principles of targeted, scientific, and law-based pollution control. We must fight the battles to defend blue skies, clear waters, and clean soil with higher standards, making every effort to resolve the prominent ecological environmental problems surrounding the common people, so they can truly feel the improvement in quality of life brought by the betterment of the ecological environment. We should promote a comprehensive green transition of economic and social development, broaden the channels for transforming "lucid waters and lush mountains" into "gold and silver mountains," and achieve the unity of ecological environmental protection and high-quality economic development. We must deepen the reform of the ecological civilization system, relying on the strictest systems and the most rigorous rule of law to protect the environment, ensuring the fair enjoyment and intergenerational inheritance of ecological wellbeing.
The current period is a critical stage for the construction of a Beautiful China, and promoting a marked improvement in the human settlement environment in both urban and rural areas is an earnest expectation of the broad masses. We must strive to build green and low-carbon beautiful cities, focusing on resolving issues such as urban air governance, protection of drinking water sources, and the management of new pollutants, allowing cities to integrate into nature so that residents can "see the mountains, see the water, and remember their nostalgia for their hometown" [6]. We must accelerate the construction of a beautiful countryside, adapting to local conditions by promoting the experience of Zhejiang’s "Thousand-Village Demonstration and Ten-Thousand-Village Renovation" Project [7]. We should coordinately promote rural ecological revitalization and the rectification of rural human settlement environments, effectively treating rural domestic sewage, garbage, and "black and malodorous" water bodies, so that the vast countryside can once again display the beautiful landscape of clear mountains, lucid waters, blue skies, green earth, and harmonious villages.
(The author is the Deputy Director of the Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization) Source: Economic Daily, August 7, 2025, page 10. Online Editor: Tong Xin