As the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and China’s president, Xi Jinping has enthusiastically supported environmental protection and sustainable development since he became China’s leader in 2012. He has called for more efforts to promote green development and green lifestyles as the country seeks to better balance economic growth and environmental protection. In a speech, Xi said the country should protect the environment “as one protects one's eyes” and treat the environment “as one treats one's life.” He said: “China should firmly reject development models that damage or destroy the environment and bid farewell to practices that boost short-term economic growth at the cost of the environment.”
At the same time, Mr. Xi Jinping has also dedicated significant effort to addressing long-standing issues of injustice in China, especially the extreme poverty in rural areas. He described eradicating poverty by 2020 as one of his chief priorities, vowing to “leave no one behind in the march toward common prosperity.”
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Antilong (CC BY-SA 3.0)As the special assistant on sustainable development to Xi, Mr. Wu Youren had more than 20 years' experience in provincial and central government. His unique educational background, with an MBA and an MS in Environmental Science from the University of Michigan, offered him multi-angle views on China’s sustainable development strategy.
Unlike in many other countries, decision-making authority in China ultimately resides solely in the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Although the CCP is complexly interrelated with the central government, which is embodied in the State Council of China, the party itself is where decisions are made.
The Chinese Communist Party, which had 82.6 million members as of 2015, is headed by the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau (known as the Politburo), a group of seven to nine people who oversee the party. Although each member of the Standing Committee has a vote when making big decisions, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, currently Xi Jinping, has a big influence over the result.
Once the important decisions have been made by the Politburo, the State Council and the 25 ministries under its supervision, within which most officials are members of the CCP, will execute these decisions. These 25 ministries include the National Development and Reform Commission, which has broad administrative and planning control over the Chinese economy, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
The National People's Congress (NPC) is the national legislature of China. Under China's current Constitution, the NPC is structured as a unicameral legislature. In theory, the NPC is the highest organ of state power in China, with the power to legislate, the power to oversee the operations of the government, and the power to elect the major officers of the state. However, in practice, almost 100% of the NPC members usually just vote for each decision already made by the CCP. Even so, when the National People's Congress approved the Three Gorges Dam in 1992, 1,767 out of 2,633 delegates voted in favor of the dam, 177 voted against, 664 abstained, and 25 members did not vote. It was very rare for so many delegates to fail to support a project.
During the 1990s, there were no nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) active in China. Community involvement in governmental decisions was also extremely rare, even in cases where the entire community was affected by a given policy or proposal. Since 2000, as people’s awareness of property rights, pollution, and environmental degradation has increased, more and more NGOs focusing on environmental protection and human rights have developed rapidly in China.