The environment is a major political issue which bears upon the mission and purpose of the CPC as well as a major social issue which bears upon public wellbeing. The CPC has always attached great importance to ecological conservation, establishing resource conservation and environmental protection as fundamental state policies and making sustainable development a national strategy. As we have made further progress and gained socioeconomic development, our understanding of the overall plan for building Chinese socialism has grown. It started from the distinction between material and non-material culture before transforming into the "Three-Pronged" overall plan, which covered economic, political, and cultural development. This grew to four prongs with the addition of social development, and finally five prongs with the addition of ecological development. This was a process of great theoretical and practical innovation, which profoundly transformed how we think about and how we go about development.

The primary contradiction in Chinese society has transformed into that between imbalanced and inadequate development and the people's growing needs for a better life, and now the people's demands for a beautiful environment have already become an important aspect of this challenge, with the public eagerly awaiting faster improvements in environmental quality. The goal of the CPC is to help the people reach the better lives for which they are yearning, and its mission as the governing party is to resolve problems that are of the greatest, most direct, and most practical concern to the people. Public sentiment is the greatest test of political efficacy. We must actively respond to the people's desires, hopes, and anxieties, vigorously advance development of an ecological civilization, provide more high-quality ecological goods, and consistently meet the people's growing demands for a beautiful environment.

Humanity is a community with a shared future, and thus protecting the environment is a challenge and a duty which all of us around the globe must face together. If development of an ecological civilization goes smoothly, it will be an achievement of Chinese socialism, otherwise the reverse will be used as an excuse by forces with hidden agendas to attack us. After humanity entered the industrial age, traditional industrialization unfolded at an incredible pace. This created immense material wealth, but also accelerated the scramble for natural resources and disrupted the original balance and cycles within the earth's ecosystems, and thereby caused the relationship between man and nature to become strained. Beginning in the 1930s, a number of Western countries experienced multiple environmental disasters. Shocking the world with the massive losses that they caused, these events led people to reflect deeply on the capitalist model of development. In over two centuries of modernization, no more than 30 countries have industrialized, with a combined population of less than a billion. China is the world's largest developing country with a population of more than 1.3 billion, and therefore our efforts to build an ecological civilization and turn China into a strong and modern socialist country that is prosperous, democratic, civilized, harmonious, and beautiful will be global in their impact.

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, our Party has thoroughly answered important theoretical and practical questions concerning the how, what, and why of ecological civilization, and introduced a whole series of new concepts, ideas, and strategies. To develop an ecological civilization in the new era, the following principles must be upheld.

The first principle is that harmonious coexistence between humans and nature must be upheld. Man and nature form a biotic community with a shared future. The environment has no substitute, and we may not realize how truly precious it is until it is damaged to the point of being unsalvageable. To borrow the words of ancient masters, "Heaven, Earth, and I were produced together, and all things and I are one." "Heaven does not speak, yet the four seasons move in order. Earth does not speak, yet the myriad beings come to life." When humans use nature in a reasonable manner and protect it with care, then nature will typically reward them generously. However, when humans exploit nature indiscriminately and aggressively plunder its resources, then nature will be ruthless in its punishment. By harming nature, humans are ultimately harming themselves – this is an irrefutable truth. As Xunzi said, "Each of the myriad things must be in a harmonious relation with Heaven in order to grow, and each must obtain from Heaven the proper nurture in order to become complete." There are numerous vivid examples of this, such as the Dujiang Weirs. This great water conservancy project was built more than 2000 years ago during the Warring States Period according to the flooding patterns of the Minjiang River and the topographical characteristics of Chengdu with its flat plains and rivers prone to overflow. It was beneficial not only at the time, but also for countless generations that have followed.

Throughout the process of development, we must prioritize environmental conservation and protection and put the restoration of nature first. We cannot think about what we can take from nature without considering how we can give back to it; we cannot think about development while ignoring our responsibility to protect the environment; and we cannot think about how we can use nature without looking at how he can restore it. We should protect our natural environment in the same way we would protect our own wellbeing, focusing on taking more positive measures that will provide solid foundations and long-term benefits, concrete steps that will help protect and restore the environment, and effective actions that will clean up our surroundings and reveal their natural beauty. This will allow the people to be close to mountains and waters and recall their rural roots with fond memories, ensure that pristine natural vistas are never too far away, and preserve the serenity, harmony, and beauty of nature.

The second principle is that our natural environment is precious. This is an important concept for development, and a major principle for advancing modernization. The phrase "green is gold" has expounded the relationship between economic development and environmental protection and shown us the truth that by protecting the environment we are protecting productive forces, and that by improving the environment we are developing productive forces. It has therefore pointed out a new path for achieving coordination between development and conservation. Lucid waters and lush mountains are not only examples of natural and ecological wealth, but they are also social and economic assets. By protecting nature, we are safeguarding the value of the environment and increasing environmental capital, while also safeguarding the potential for future economic and social development, ensuring that our natural assets have lasting ecological and socioeconomic effects.

At their roots, environmental problems are problems with the ways in which we live and develop. In order to resolve them at the fundamental level, we must implement principled development that is innovative, coordinated, green, open, and shared, and accelerate the formation of spatial patterns, industrial structures, modes of production, and lifestyles conducive to resource conservation and environmental protection. We must also keep economic activities and human activity in general within the limits of what our environment and natural resources can bear, giving the environment the time and space that it needs to rest and recuperate. We must move faster to define and enforce strict controls including red lines for environmental protection, minimum standards for environmental quality, and ceilings on resource utilization. We will absolutely not allow people to continue to engage in activities that violate these controls, follow old extensive models of growth, or seek short-term gain at the expense of future generations. In terms of red lines for environmental protection, we should establish a strict system of controls that covers important ecological spaces so that these spaces do not change in character, become smaller, or lose ecological functions. In terms of minimum standards for environmental quality, we should make it the basic requirement that environmental quality must not worsen and may only get better. We should strive for constant improvements on this basis, and strictly enforce accountability in areas with serious ecological degradation or where environmental quality has worsened. In terms of ceilings on resource utilization, we must consider not only the needs of people and the world today, but also those of the environment and future generations. We must keep a firm handle on the intensity with which we exploit and utilize natural resources, ensuring that we do not exceed the carrying capacity of these resources.

The third principle is that there is no welfare more universally beneficial than a sound natural environment. In all things, we must act according to the will of the public. The environment is crucial to the wellbeing of the public, since blue skies and verdant surroundings allow us to feel the beauty and joy of life. Just as economic development is for the wellbeing of the people, so is environmental protection. In addition to creating more material and cultural wealth to meet people's growing needs for a better life, we need also to provide more quality ecological goods to meet people's growing demands for a beautiful environment. We must ensure that the environment benefits the people, stressing the resolution of prominent environmental problems that impact public health, accelerating the improvement of environmental quality, and providing more high-quality ecological goods as we strive to achieve social equity and justice and consistently meet the people's growing needs for a beautiful environment.

Since developing an ecological civilization is a cause in which the entire public participates and has a stake, we must translate the idea of building a beautiful China into the conscious actions of all people. Every person is a protector, contributor, and beneficiary of the environment. No one can remain aloof, choosing to critique from the sidelines rather than participate. We must boost all people's awareness of the need to conserve resources, protect the environment, and maintain our ecosystems, foster standards for ecological ethics and conduct, launch public activities promoting sustainability, and encourage all members of society to contribute to protecting the environment by cutting down on the amount of pollution they produce and energy and resources they consume as much as possible.

The fourth principle is that our mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes and grasslands together form a biotic community. An ecosystem is an integrated natural entity made up of organic chains that are tightly bound and dependent on each other. Just as humans need the fields for food, the fields need the rivers, the rivers need the mountains, the mountains need the soils, and the soils need the forests and grasslands. This biotic community is the material basis for humanity's subsistence and development. We must take all of the ways that we impact nature into account from a broad and long-term perspective, and avoid being penny-wise and pound-foolish, biting off more than we can chew or emphasizing one thing while neglecting another, for this would ultimately cause long-term environmental damage on a system-wide scale.

We must seek out a new path for environmental governance by treating it as a systematic project and looking at it from an overall perspective. Rather than continuing to treat superficial symptoms through stopgap measures with government departments each looking out for their own immediate problems while holding each other back, we must make plans that take all factors into consideration and simultaneously implement multiple comprehensive measures to ensure that our efforts to build an ecological civilization permeate all fields, regions, and processes. For example, to effectively control water pollution and protect our aquatic environments, we must take everything into account, such as entire bodies of water and the lands that surround them, both surface and subsurface sources of water, both rivers and oceans, both aquatic ecosystems and aquatic resources, and both the prevention and control of pollution and the protection of ecosystems. By doing so, we will attain the optimal results of systematic environmental governance. We must thoroughly implement integrated ecological protection and restoration for mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, and grasslands, carry out large-scale national greening campaigns, and accelerate comprehensive control of soil erosion and desertification. In promoting growth of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, we must ensure well-coordinated environmental protection, avoid excessive development, put the environment first, remain committed to green development, and make it a precondition that all related economic activities do not damage the environment.

The fifth principle is that the strictest regulations and laws must be applied in protecting the environment. Environmental protection must have legal and regulatory backing. Most of China's outstanding problems in environmental protection are related to inadequate systems, lax regulations, imperfect laws, lacking enforcement, and ineffectual punishment. We must accelerate innovation of regulations, ensuring that they offer more, have adequate peripheral support, and that they are rigorously enforced. By doing so, we will turn our regulations into rigid and inviolable constraints. We must use our regulations to check the use of power, protect blue skies and increase green coverage, and ensure accountability, thus guaranteeing that the CPC Central Committee's decisions and arrangements on building an ecological civilization are firmly implemented and produce real results.

As Han Feizi said, "When those who uphold the law are strong, the state is strong; when they are weak, the state is weak." Institutions depend on concrete enforcement and rigorous oversight. We have already introduced a series of reform measures and related institutions, and these must be implemented with the same intensity as central environmental protection inspections. The rigidity and authority of these institutions must be firmly established, leaving no room for choice, flexibility, or compromise. We must implement a system under which officials bear the responsibility for building an ecological civilization, and ensure that they are accountable through strict assessments. We must hold to account on a permanent basis those who cause serious consequences through blind decisions that disregard the environment. When dealing with actions that damage the environment, we must not be soft or make exceptions. Instead, we must keep a forceful grip on representative cases of environmental destruction and send out a signal that such behavior will be met with harsh punishment. Accountability must be ensured, no matter the person, place, or time frame being investigated. We must persist in getting to the bottom of these issues, and never let our institutions and regulations become "toothless tigers."

The sixth principle is that joint efforts must be made in building a global ecological civilization. Development of an ecological civilization concerns the future of humanity, and building a green living environment is humanity's common aspiration. The whole world must work together to protect the environment and respond to climate change. No country can ignore these issues, and no country will fare well by going it alone. China has already become a major participant, contributor, and champion in the movement to build a global ecological civilization, advocating the cultivation of ecosystems in which Mother Nature and green development come first, and promoting joint efforts toward making the world cleaner and more beautiful. We must be deeply involved in global environmental governance, build China's say and influence in the global environmental governance system, actively guide the transformation of the international order, and create solutions for environmental protection and sustainable development around the world. We must remain committed to being environmentally-friendly, and take an active role in international cooperation on climate change. Finally, we must drive the Belt and Road Initiative forward, seeing that the principles and practices of ecological civilization benefit the peoples of all countries along the B&R route.