Material and Cultural-Ethical Advancement

SINCE ancient times, the Chinese nation has yearned for a world of great harmony, one defined by both material and cultural-ethical abundance. This ancient thought has breathed new life into the endeavour of Chinese modernization, which pursues material prosperity, cultural-ethical progress, and stronger confidence in ideology and culture.

Modernization featuring material abundance

In the Chinese civilization, a well-off life free from worries is always an aspiration, and keeping wealth with the people is a cherished tradition of the government. For centuries, ancient China had led the world in economic growth. During the Song Dynasty (960–1279 B.C.), China’s economy was among the world’s largest. Along the River during the Qingming Festival, a renowned Chinese painting, depicts vividly the busy markets and shoppers back then.

Entering modern times, China became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal nation due to the corruption of the Qing Government and foreign invasions. Living in a country of poverty and backwardness, the Chinese people rose to the challenge of the times and established a new China under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Unremitting efforts were made to eradicate poverty on Chinese soil. China has achieved the poverty-reduction target of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development a decade ahead of schedule. It has won the largest battle against poverty in human history by eliminating absolute poverty domestically. China’s per capita disposable income increased from RMB 49.7 in 1949 to RMB 37,000 in 2022. More than 1.4 billion people are leading a well-off life up to the standard of a moderately prosperous society. China has built the world’s largest education, social security, and healthcare systems. As China continues to modernize in its own way, new business forms involving rural tourism and local specialties are driving the development of rural areas, firming up the progress in poverty alleviation. Such changes are well captured in Xihaigu, a mid-western region in China, where the Juncao technology of mushroom farming enabled a 29-time growth in per capita income in two decades, and ecotourism added more ways for locals to get rich.

Modernization featuring cultural abundance

The Chinese civilization is the only one in the world that has never been interrupted. It is well recorded by various symbols of the Chinese nation, from oracle bone inscriptions to folk poems and songs, from ancient pottery to exquisite pavilions.

Modern-day China endeavours to preserve its traditional cultural heritage while sustaining fast development. It has 43 items included in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage, a forerunner in the world. Projects such as “Archaeology of China” have underpinned the study and interpretation of the origins of the Chinese civilization. The Sanxingdui Sacrificial Pits in Sichuan Province is famous for having “slept for millennia and woke up to stun the world.” Hailed as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in the 20th century, thousands of rare treasures have been unearthed one by one. The signature bronze human head has become a trending TikTok phenomenon, attracting millions of netizens around the globe to see it on the cloud.

The blooming of cultural undertakings and industry has greatly enriched people’s cultural life in China. Young people, keen on the simple and natural Chinese lifestyle, are carrying forward such unique romance from their ancestors. They have become a new force for inheriting the traditional Chinese culture. Public projects have supported rural libraries to enrich the cultural life of locals and helped realize people’s all-round development on the basis of ensuring material abundance.

Modernization featuring mutual learning among civilizations

Zhang Qian, an envoy of the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–24 A.D.), helped facilitate the flow of commodities, culture, technology, and art between the East and West. According to historical records, Quanzhou, a Chinese port city, was characterized by integration of diverse cultures during the Song and Yuan dynasties, where “half of the residents were merchants in exotic attires.” And similar examples abound. The Chinese civilization has retained its vigour over thousands of years due to its openness and inclusiveness, another proof of the fact that civilizations shine brighter through mutual learning.

In the era of economic globalization, China has actively opened up to the rest of the world. It continues to expand outbound investment, and introduce high-quality goods in innovative ways such as hosting the China International Import Expo, so as to share development opportunities and promote the progress of humanity’s material advancement with the rest of the world. China’s scientific and technological advances have contributed to the economic growth, job creation, green transformation, social inclusion, and improvement of people’s livelihoods in many other countries. China has enabled a transition from “Made in China” to “Smart Manufacturing by China”, with 5G technology facilitating communication, high-speed railroads and other transportation solutions connecting the world, new-energy vehicles going into production overseas, and cross-border e-commerce driving digital transformation.

Entering the 21st century, China has hosted the Olympic Games, the World Expo, the Winter Olympics and the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations, and launched the Ancient Civilizations Forum, contributing to the cultural exchanges among countries. Recently, China has put forward the Global Civilization Initiative, which calls for respecting the diversity of civilizations and addressing global challenges through exchanges, mutual learning and coexistence, reflecting the cultural aspect of Chinese modernization, and providing important international public goods that help promote humanity’s cultural-ethical advancement.

It is believed that with the contribution made by Chinese modernization, the skyscrapers of humanity’s development achievement and the myriad stars of humanity’s cultural advancement are bound to reinforce one another and progress in parallel.

Harmony Between Humanity and Nature

Imagine a place with blue sky, white clouds, lush mountains and lucid water… It is everyone’s dream to live in a clean and beautiful world, no matter where they are. To make this dream come true, China has the way — modernization of harmony between humanity and nature.

Ecological conservation: an integral part of traditional Chinese philosophy

The concept of harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature has been deeply rooted in China’s DNA since antiquity. Looking back on thousands of years of history, the relationship between man and nature was such a major topic of traditional Chinese culture that countless efforts were put into its study, with the unity of man and nature being the core concept of traditional Chinese philosophy.

Take Confucianism and Daoism, the two most influential schools of thought, as an example. As Confucius wisely remarked, “What does Heaven ever say? Yet the four seasons move in order, and the hundred things come to life. What does the Heaven say?” It holds that humanity must subject themselves to the law of nature to understand and transform the world, and reverence for nature is the premise and basic rule of people’s social activities. Zhuangzi, a leading Daoist philosopher, observed that “Heaven and earth coexist with me, and all things and I are one.” He regarded nature as an organic whole with emphasis on the harmonious relationship between heaven, earth and man. In fact, when the various schools of thought in ancient China conducted their studies, their focus had always been the concept of harmony between man and nature.

Green: a definitive feature of China in the new era

President Xi Jinping, with an eye to the severely insufficient per capita energy and resource endowment in China, made the important observation that when accelerating its development, China faces greater constraints in terms of energy, resources and the environment, which determines that the beaten path of Western modernization simply does not suit China at all. As such, the Chinese people protect nature and preserve the environment the way they protect their eyes. Thanks to their unremitting efforts, a more beautiful China with bluer sky, greener land and clearer water is a dream turned into reality. On water quality improvement, water sections achieving excellent quality grade now account for 87.9 percent of the total, according to statistics from Chinese state media. On green development, China has always been a major contributor since 2000. Domestically, its forest area has reached 24.02 percent of the total land area. Globally, a quarter of the world’s new afforestation comes from China every year, a whopping figure of 190,000 square kilometres. Clearly, China’s ecological and environmental protection is nearing an inflection point, with historic changes happening across the board.

Giant pandas, though endemic to China, are the beloved ambassadors of friendship across the world. As “ambassadors”, they speak volumes about the continuous improvement of China’s environment. From captive breeding to wild population recovery, from fragmented habitats to national parks, giant pandas have been upgraded from “endangered” to “vulnerable”. At present, 67 nature reserves have been established for giant pandas in China, effectively protecting 53.8 percent of their habitat and 66.8 percent of their wild population. With this success, China is now sharing its experience of biodiversity conservation with the world. The China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda has engaged in scientific research cooperation with zoos in more than 10 countries, joined the “International Long-term Cooperative Project of Giant Panda Breeding” with zoos across the world, and carried out cooperation and research in breeding and conservation.

The Chinese people have been working hard with strong determination to pursue green development. With its commitment to the dual carbon goals, China has promised to move from carbon peak to carbon neutrality within 30 years, that is 10 to 40 years less than that of the United States and Europe. This means that China, as the largest developing country, will achieve the highest reduction in carbon- emission intensity in the world and move from carbon peak to carbon neutrality within the shortest time in global history. Saihanba is a case in point. This largest man-made forest farm in the world was awarded the Champions of the Earth Award, the UN’s highest environmental honour, for it took only 60 years to transform from a wasteland into a lush, green paradise that could neutralize the annual carbon dioxide emissions of 860,000 family fuel cars.

China topped the world in terms of various indicators of green development. For instance, it led the world in the utilization of renewable energy, the output and sales of new energy vehicles, and the speed of air-quality improvement. It is also home to the largest area of afforestation in the world with the biggest increase in forest resources. China’s steady progress in green development will surely benefit future generations.

China’s commitment to the world: building a beautiful and green planet together

China has taken an active part in global environmental and climate governance. While promoting its own green development, China also shares its experience with the world and provides support for global green development. It has put forward and is now implementing the Global Development Initiative; it has promoted the establishment of the Global Clean Energy Cooperation Partnership; it was among the first to issue the National Plan on Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; it has established the Kunming Biodiversity Fund; it has become the largest contributor to the core budget of the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Protocols. The list goes on. In joining hands to tackle environmental challenges and promote global sustainable development, China has always been a firm doer of deeds. Dr. Bruno Oberle, Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, lauded China for sharing the concept of ecological civilization, which is yet another contribution that China has made to the world.

Ecological conservation, a timeless theme of human civilization, points the right way forward. Looking ahead, a China that commits to green modernization will provide more opportunities for the world and make greater contribution to the progress of all mankind.