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These rhetorical and regulatory shifts toward “green” China may be traced to a rethinking of the country’s guiding political philosophy. For a struggling developing country emerging from Mao-era chaos in 1979, economic growth seemed the most important national goal. Ideological work to define and introduce “socialism with Chinese characteristics” – a formula that promoted the free market in a nominally Marxist society – was required. This formula helped make China the manufacturing hub of the world. But the explosive growth came at an unacceptable environmental cost, one that risked social upheaval and loss of legitimacy for the Communist Party. The country’s core ideological principles needed revision and updating so as to provide guidance to address deepening post-Mao social and economic contradictions like inequality, unemployment, and consumerism, all exacerbated by the befoulment of China’s air, water, soil, and food.

In China, to a degree unheard of in the West, major policy shifts must be justified through debate and agreement over underlying political philosophy. Supported by an extensive network of government think tanks, Party schools, and Marxism research centers at universities, the one-party system relies on ideological consensus for the country’s overarching direction. In 2007, under Xi Jinping’s predecessor Hu Jintao, “ecological civilization,” or shengtai wenming 生态文明, became an explicit goal of the Chinese Communist Party. In 2012, the phrase was enshrined within the Party Constitution, and six years later within the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. With the successful elevation of this phrase to the level of official political philosophy, the latest iteration of the Party’s ideological work came to fruition. Xi Jinping’s ubiquitously quoted line encapsulates this: “Clear waters, green mountains are in fact gold mountains, silver mountains” (lüshui qingshan jiushi jinshan yinshan 绿水青山就是金山银山).

“Ecological civilization” garners widespread support across China’s broad and sprawling state apparatus because it projects the Party’s rule as both historical and visionary. Ecological civilization is described first and foremost as a continuation of China’s developmental path under the leadership of the Communist Party – transforming from agricultural civilization to industrial civilization under Mao Zedong, then to material civilization under Deng Xiaoping, and now to ecological civilization under Xi Jinping – a faithful reincarnation of Marx’s theory of the stages of development with Chinese characteristics. At the same time, on the world stage the phrase frames the Chinese nation as a leader of a rejuvenated civilization, reviving nationalistic fervor in a nation that has emerged out of its “century of humiliation” under Western and Japanese imperialism. Thus, in light of the tremendous political appeal of ecological civilization, China’s go-green efforts are inextricably linked to the political and ideological ambitions of the state.

As a political philosophy, ecological civilization builds on two schools of thought, both with Western roots. These are ecological Marxism and constructive postmodernism. The former understands the commodification of nature as lying at the heart of contradictions that may spell the eventual demise of capitalism. The latter attempts to integrate the best characteristics of tradition and modernity, both as a philosophical thought experiment and as a practical path toward harmony between humans and non-human ecology. More than 20 Chinese government research centers are dedicated to debating and refining these concepts for the Chinese context, including, for example, the Center for Ecological Civilization at the Chinese Academy of Governance. Such centers spearhead domestic philosophical debates and provide the underpinnings for constitutional changes, legal initiatives, and broad policy directions like five-year plans and national directives. Within Chinese think tanks, analysis of China’s environmental problems in the context of achieving ecological civilization often focuses on the negative influence of interest groups and capital, on the unhealthy “worship” of economic growth and development, and on the risks of an overly anthropocentric worldview (Z. Wang et al. 2014). In recent years, the discursive appeal of the phrase has enabled Chinese top leaders to institute governance reforms and reorganization and to promote technological innovations for environmental protection.

Alongside China’s domestic efforts, international forums and publications laud China’s newly articulated guiding philosophy. The world’s environmental advocates have expressed admiration and even envy that ecological considerations have received such high levels of official endorsement. Ecological civilization is widely interpreted as China’s effort to resolve tensions between environmental protection and economic development through concrete initiatives such as renewable energy promotion, carbon reduction, and reforestation. The phrase has become a focus of international optimism that China may be offering the world a visionary set of guiding principles, a sort of “sustainable development with Chinese characteristics” that both preserves China’s distinctive traditions and governance system and confronts the problem of capitalist overexploitation of global resources (Zinda et al. 2018). Some have speculated that ecological civilization embodies “the potential for a more assertive and confident China to assume a stronger leadership role in global environmental debates” (Geall and Ely 2018). Excitement around China’s prominent adoption of the concept has sparked conferences sponsored by the Yale School of Forestry and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting (Sawyer 2015). Typical scholarly work includes such titles as Barbara Finamore’s Will China Save the Planet? (2018), Arran Gare’s The Philosophical Foundations of Ecological Civilization: A Manifesto for the Future (2016), and Joanna Lewis’s Green Innovation in China: China’s Wind Power Industry and the Global Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy (2013). Ecological civilization thus figures both as China’s self-proclaimed solution for a troubled planet and as a potential beacon of hope for some international observers.