Accurately Grasping the Ecological-Civilization Value Implications and Logical Pathways of Chinese-Path Modernization

The report of the 20th National Congress of the CPC states: “Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature.” Harmony between humanity and nature centrally encapsulates the ecological-civilization value orientation of Chinese-path modernization, clarifying from the ecological-civilization dimension that Chinese-path modernization is neither the modernization model of traditional industrial civilization with “civilization but no ecology,” nor a replica of Western ecological modernization development that “pollutes first and treats later.” One important reason why Chinese-path modernization qualifies as a “path” lies precisely in its typical significance in the ecological-civilization dimension. Chinese-path modernization follows the historical objective laws of green productive forces development, continuously perfects new relations of production more suited to the development of green productive forces, steadfastly adheres to the value orientation of ecological livelihood, and actively promotes the modernization transformation of coordinated digital and ecological development. It therefore possesses value implications and comparative advantages that the Western modernization model cannot match.

党的二十大报告提出：“中国式现代化是人与自然和谐共生的现代化。”人与自然和谐共生集中概括了中国式现代化的生态文明价值取向，从生态文明维度阐明了中国式现代化既不是“有文明、无生态”的传统工业文明的现代化模式，更不是“先污染、后治理”的西方生态现代化发展的翻版。中国式现代化之所以为“式”，其中一个重要方面就在于在生态文明维度有其典型意义。中国式现代化遵循绿色生产力发展的历史客观规律，不断完善与绿色生产力发展更相适应的新型生产关系，始终坚守生态民生的价值指向，积极推动数字化与生态化协同发展的现代化转型，因而具有西方现代化模式无法企及的价值意蕴与比较优势。

Lucid Waters and Lush Mountains: Effectively Realizing the Organic Unity of Ecological Protection and Economic Development

绿水青山：有效实现生态保护与经济发展的有机统一

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized and elaborated the important concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,” pointing out a new pathway for achieving coordinated development and protection. The ecological environment is an important foundation for sustainable economic and social development. “Lucid waters and lush mountains” are not only the ecological environment necessary for human survival but also the source of material wealth and use value, the “natural productive force of labor.” Therefore, “protecting the ecological environment means protecting productive forces, and improving the ecological environment means developing productive forces.” Chinese-path modernization of harmony between humanity and nature takes the high-quality development of green productive forces as an important driving force. It must therefore transform the ecological resource advantages of “lucid waters and lush mountains” into the economic development momentum of “invaluable assets,” must treat the ecological environment as an intrinsic element of productive forces, protect and enhance natural value and natural capital, balance the economic and ecological values of the natural environment, and must rely on technological innovation to reduce resource consumption and pollution emissions, produce more and better ecological products, and achieve the unity of economic, social, and ecological benefits.

党的十八大以来，习近平总书记多次强调和阐述“绿水青山就是金山银山”的重要理念，指明了实现发展和保护协同共生的新路径。生态环境是经济社会可持续发展的重要基础，“绿水青山”不仅是人类生存所必需的生态环境，更是物质财富与使用价值的源泉，是“劳动的自然生产力”。因此，“保护生态环境就是保护生产力、改善生态环境就是发展生产力”。人与自然和谐共生的中国式现代化以绿色生产力的高质量发展为重要动力，就必须将“绿水青山”的生态资源优势转化成“金山银山”的经济发展动能，必须将生态环境作为生产力的内在要素，保护和增值自然价值和自然资本，统筹兼顾自然环境的经济价值与生态价值，必须依靠科技创新降低资源消耗与污染排放，生产更多更好的生态产品，实现经济效益、社会效益与生态效益相统一。

General Secretary Xi Jinping points out: “Green development is the hallmark of high-quality development; new quality productive forces are themselves green productive forces.” This important thesis profoundly interprets the relationship between new quality productive forces and green productive forces, pointing out the important direction and practical pathway for developing green productive forces. The high-quality development of green productive forces needs to be realized through the innovation-driven impetus of green technology, low-carbon technology, and circular technology. In this sense, green productive forces are essentially a kind of new quality productive forces, an advanced productive force with innovation-driven impetus as its core, high-quality development as its form, and relying on revolutionary breakthroughs in science and technology to achieve optimal allocation of production factors, transformation and upgrading of production momentum, and significant improvement of production efficiency. The report of the 20th National Congress of the CPC emphasizes: “Promoting green and low-carbon economic and social development is a key link in achieving high-quality development.” That is to say, green productive forces, with “green, low-carbon, and circular” as their basic characteristics, become an important practical foundation for high-quality development. Driving high-quality development with green productive forces will be a broad and profound systemic transformation characterized by innovation as the driving force, coordination as the feature, green as the hallmark, openness as the pathway, and sharing as the purpose.

习近平总书记指出：“绿色发展是高质量发展的底色，新质生产力本身就是绿色生产力。”这一重要论断深刻诠释了新质生产力与绿色生产力的关系，指明了发展绿色生产力的重要方向和实践路径。绿色生产力的高质量发展需要依靠绿色技术、低碳技术、循环技术的创新驱动来实现。从这个意义上讲，绿色生产力本质上就是一种新质生产力，就是一种以创新驱动为内核，以高质量发展为质态，依靠科技的革命性突破实现生产要素优化配置、生产动能转型升级、生产效率显著提升的先进生产力。党的二十大报告强调：“推动经济社会发展绿色化、低碳化是实现高质量发展的关键环节。”即是说，以“绿色、低碳、循环”为基本特征的绿色生产力成为高质量发展的重要现实基础。以绿色生产力驱动高质量发展将是一场以创新为动力、以协调为特点、以绿色为底色、以开放为途径、以共享为宗旨的广泛而深刻的系统性变革。

To advance Chinese-path modernization through the high-quality development of green productive forces: first, we must replace factor-input-driven extensive development with innovation-driven intensive development, promote industrial transformation and upgrading, and develop emerging green industries. The success or failure of ecological civilization construction depends to a large extent on the ecological transformation of the economic development mode and the green adjustment of the industrial structure. Economic development cannot drain the pond to catch all the fish in terms of resources and the environment, nor can ecological protection abandon economic development by climbing a tree to catch fish. [1]1 “Draining the pond to catch all the fish” (涸泽而渔) and “climbing a tree to catch fish” (缘木求鱼) are classical Chinese idioms. The former describes pursuing short-term gain at the expense of long-term sustainability; the latter describes pursuing a goal by the wrong means. Chinese-path modernization, taking the high-quality development of green productive forces as its foothold, must realize the mutual reinforcement of ecological protection and economic development through “industrial ecologization and ecological industrialization.” Second, we must give full play to the decisive role of the market mechanism in resource allocation, cultivate and develop a unified national ecological environment market through top-level design and overall planning, promote the market-based trading of carbon emission rights, water use rights, energy use rights, and pollution discharge rights, advance the construction of industry standards and quality systems for ecological products, break down regional barriers to the ecological environment with a unified and complete market mechanism, and promote the free flow and efficient allocation of natural resources and ecological environment factors across different regions and industries. Third, we must actively release the bonding role of capital in driving the agglomeration and allocation of various production factors, curb the disorderly expansion of capital, regulate and guide the orderly development of capital, and make capital a powerful driving force for the high-quality development of green productive forces. Fourth, we must do a good job in developing and cultivating green human resources, cultivate scientific and technological workers and laborers with ecological awareness and green skills, improve the ecological level of enterprise production management and operation through a complete green management mechanism, and effectively give play to the main role of enterprises in the process of green development.

以绿色生产力的高质量发展推进中国式现代化，一要以创新驱动的集约式发展替代要素投入的粗放式发展，推动产业转型升级，发展新兴绿色产业。生态文明建设兴衰成败在很大程度上取决于经济发展方式的生态化转型与产业结构的绿色化调整，经济发展既不能对资源环境涸泽而渔，生态保护也不能舍弃经济发展而缘木求鱼。中国式现代化以绿色生产力的高质量发展为立足点，就要通过“产业生态化与生态产业化”，实现生态保护与经济发展相得益彰。二要充分发挥市场机制在资源配置中的决定性作用，通过顶层设计与统筹谋划，培育和发展全国统一的生态环境市场，推动碳排放权、用水权、用能权以及排污权的市场化交易，推进生态产品的行业标准与质量体系建设，以统一完善的市场机制破除生态环境的区域壁垒，推动自然资源和生态环境要素在不同区域、不同行业之间自由流动和高效配置。三要积极释放资本带动各类生产要素集聚配置的纽带作用，遏制资本无序扩张，规范和引导资本有序发展，让资本成为绿色生产力高质量发展的强大驱动力。四要做好绿色人力资源的开发与培育，培养具备生态意识与绿色技能的科技者和劳动者，通过完善的绿色管理机制提升企业生产管理与运行的生态化水平，切实发挥企业在绿色发展过程中的主体作用。

Systems and Mechanisms: The Fundamental Guarantee for Realizing Green Development of Harmony between Humanity and Nature

体制机制：实现人与自然和谐共生绿色发展的根本保障

In July 2023, during an inspection tour in Sichuan, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: “To advance ecological civilization construction, we must build a good institutional framework, ensure the implementation of institutions, and at the same time fully mobilize the initiative, creativity, and enthusiasm of the broad masses of the people, consolidating and developing the achievements of ecological civilization construction in the New Era.” Chinese-path modernization of harmony between humanity and nature requires further comprehensive deepening of reform to liberate green productive forces, and even more so requires continuously perfecting the systems and mechanisms suited to them for developing green productive forces, stimulating the social vitality driven by innovation.

2023年7月，习近平总书记在四川考察时强调：“抓生态文明建设必须搭建好制度框架，抓好制度执行，同时充分调动广大人民群众的积极性主动性创造性，巩固发展新时代生态文明建设成果。”人与自然和谐共生的中国式现代化需要为解放绿色生产力而进一步全面深化改革，更需要为发展绿色生产力而不断完善与之相适合的体制机制，激发创新驱动的社会活力。

Specifically, providing institutional guarantees for green development through further comprehensive deepening of reform means further perfecting and implementing the systems and mechanisms of the concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.” First, we must continue to perfect the construction of the legal system for ecological environment governance, “protecting the ecological environment with the strictest systems and the most rigorous rule of law,” and raising the modernization level of ecological environment governance. On the one hand, with “the most rigorous” as the goal, we strengthen institutional innovation, refine on the basis of the “four beams and eight pillars” [2]2 “Four beams and eight pillars” (四梁八柱) is a Chinese architectural metaphor for the main supporting framework of a system, here referring to the foundational institutional structure of ecological governance. the construction of institutional mechanisms such as ecological governance accountability, ecological governance performance assessment, coordinated governance of environmental pollution, and coordination of ecological security work, weaving the net of institutional guarantees more tightly, and forming a scientific and standardized ecological environment governance system. On the other hand, with “the strictest” as the goal, we ensure institutional implementation, further perfect the working mechanism for ecological environment supervision and inspection, prevent “institutional idling” and the “broken windows effect” [3]3 The “broken windows effect” (破窗效应) is a criminological theory, widely cited in Chinese governance discourse, that visible signs of disorder encourage further disorder and noncompliance. with systematic implementation mechanisms and complete supervision mechanisms, and effectively transform institutional advantages into ecological environment governance effectiveness. Second, we must establish and perfect a basic ecological civilization system that connects with the high-level socialist market economy system, ensuring the high-quality development of the ecological economy. On the one hand, according to market requirements, we perfect the property rights system for natural resource assets, the asset management system, and the ownership agency mechanism characterized by “clear ownership, well-defined rights and responsibilities, strict protection, smooth circulation, and effective supervision,” and perfect the property rights trading systems for water use rights, energy use rights, pollution discharge rights, and carbon emission rights. On the other hand, we take the value realization mechanism of ecological products as the key to implementing the concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,” continuously perfect the construction of mechanisms for ecological product investigation and monitoring, value evaluation, and business development, and promote ecological economization. Third, we must establish and perfect systems and mechanisms that encourage green production and low-carbon living, further accelerate the green transformation of institutional mechanisms such as fiscal, tax, financial, price policies, and standard systems, and further perfect the incentive mechanisms for green consumption and green procurement as well as the guarantee mechanisms for comprehensive resource conservation and circular utilization.

具体来讲，通过进一步全面深化改革为绿色发展提供制度保障，就是要进一步完善落实“绿水青山就是金山银山”理念的体制机制。一是要继续完善生态环境治理的法律制度体系建设，“用最严格制度最严密法治”保护生态环境，提升生态环境治理的现代化水平。一方面，以“最严密”为目标强化制度创新，在“四梁八柱”的基础上细化生态治理责任追究、生态治理绩效考核以及环境污染协同治理、生态安全工作协调等制度机制建设，将制度保障之网编织得更加紧密，形成科学规范的生态环境治理制度体系。另一方面，以“最严格”为目标抓好制度执行，进一步完善生态环境督查工作机制，以系统的落实机制和完善的监督机制防止“制度空转”与“破窗效应”，切实将制度优势转化成生态环境治理效能。二是要建立健全与高水平社会主义市场经济体制相衔接的生态文明基础体制，保障生态经济的高质量发展。一方面，依据市场要求健全“归属清晰、权责明确、保护严格、流转顺畅、监管有效”的自然资源资产产权制度、资产管理制度以及所有权代理机制，完善用水权、用能权、排污权与碳排放权等产权交易制度。另一方面，把生态产品价值实现机制作为落实“绿水青山就是金山银山”理念的关键，不断完善生态产品调查监测、价值评价与经营开发等机制建设，促进生态经济化。三是要建立健全鼓励绿色生产、低碳生活的体制机制，进一步加快财税、金融、价格政策与标准体系等制度机制的绿色转型，进一步健全绿色消费、绿色采购的激励机制以及资源全面节约与循环利用的保障机制。

The Fusion of “Life” and “Livelihood”: Profoundly Manifesting the People-Centered Stance of Harmony between Humanity and Nature

“生”“生”交融：深刻彰显人与自然和谐共生的人民立场

“The environment is people’s livelihood; green mountains are beauty; blue skies are happiness. Developing the economy is for people’s livelihood, and protecting the ecological environment is equally for people’s livelihood.” General Secretary Xi Jinping integrates the ecological environment with public goods, people’s welfare and well-being, and even a better life and common prosperity. This not only incorporates a good ecological environment and high-quality ecological products into the category of people’s livelihood, making ecological wealth an important component of the people’s need for a better life and enriching the connotation of people’s all-round development in the New Era, but also incorporates the fair distribution of ecological products and the universal sharing of environmental rights and interests into the category of social justice, achieving the unity of ecological justice and environmental justice, and expanding the scientific connotation of socialist common prosperity.

“环境就是民生，青山就是美丽，蓝天也是幸福。发展经济是为了民生，保护生态环境同样也是为了民生。”习近平总书记将生态环境与公共产品、民生福祉乃至美好生活、共同富裕融为一体，不仅将良好的生态环境与优质生态产品纳入民生范畴，使生态财富成为人民美好生活需要的重要内容，丰富了人的全面发展的新时代内涵，同时将生态产品的分配公平、环境权益的普惠共享纳入社会正义范畴，实现了生态正义与环境正义相统一，拓展了社会主义共同富裕的科学内涵。

To advance Chinese-path modernization featuring harmony between humanity and nature, we must take people’s livelihood and well-being as the fundamental purpose and make people’s livelihood construction a foundational project, adhering to the principle of “benefiting the people through ecology, serving the people through ecology, and relying on the people through ecology.” First, it is necessary to establish a scientific understanding of ecological people’s livelihood and a value orientation of ecological justice throughout society, to handle the relationship between economic development and ecological protection under the guidance of the value principles of “harmonious coexistence” and “people’s livelihood and well-being,” and to resolve the imbalances in environmental rights and interests and the inadequacy of ecological development among regions, between urban and rural areas, and among social groups. Second, it is necessary to enlarge the ecological “cake” by developing green productive forces, to create a beautiful ecological environment through green development, low-carbon development, and circular development, to produce better ecological products, to accumulate more ecological wealth, and to maintain stable ecological security, thereby continuously elevating people’s pursuit of a better ecological life on the basis of meeting their material and cultural needs. Third, it is necessary to distribute the ecological “cake” well through “three distributions” [4]4 “Three distributions” (三次分配) refers to a Chinese theoretical framework for income distribution: the first distribution is market-based (by factor contributions), the second is government-led (through taxation and transfers), and the third is voluntary (through charity and social donations).: while focusing on efficiency and relying on market mechanisms to encourage various factors of production to actively participate in the distribution of ecological benefits, we must pay more attention to fairness, relying on policy instruments such as government taxation, fiscal transfer payments, and social security to correct the irrationalities in the market-based distribution of ecological benefits; we must also rely on cultural forces to encourage social organizations, enterprises, and individuals to voluntarily develop ecological public welfare undertakings, so that all people can share the fruits of ecological civilization construction and enhance their sense of ecological gain, ecological happiness, and ecological security.

推进人与自然和谐共生的中国式现代化，既要以民生福祉为根本宗旨，又要以民生建设为基础性工程，坚持“生态惠民、生态利民、生态为民”。一是要在全社会建立生态民生的科学认知与生态正义的价值导向，以“和谐共生”与“民生福祉”的价值原则为指导处理好经济发展与生态保护的关系，解决好区域之间、城乡之间以及社会群体之间环境权益的不平衡、生态发展的不充分问题。二是要通过发展绿色生产力做大生态“蛋糕”，通过绿色发展、低碳发展与循环发展打造优美的生态环境，生产更好的生态产品，积累更多的生态财富，维护稳定的生态安全，在满足人民群众物质文化生活需要的基础上不断提升人们对美好生态生活的追求。三是要通过“三次分配”分好生态“蛋糕”，既要注重效率，依靠市场机制鼓励各种生产要素积极参与生态利益分配，更要注重公平，依托政府税收、财政转移支付以及社会保障等政策手段矫正生态利益市场化分配的不合理，还要依靠文化力量鼓励社会组织、企业和个人志愿发展生态公益事业，让全体人民共享生态文明建设成果，提升人民群众的生态获得感、生态幸福感与生态安全感。

“Digital” and “Ecological” Synergy: Pioneering the Modernization Transformation of Digitalization and Ecologicalization in Coordination

“数”“生”协同：开创数字化与生态化协同发展的现代化转型

Chinese-path modernization is a smart modernization relying on the construction of a digital ecological civilization. At the National Conference on Ecological and Environmental Protection in 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping explicitly stated: “Deepen the application of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, build a digital governance system for a Beautiful China, and construct a green and smart digital ecological civilization.” [5]5 The National Conference on Ecological and Environmental Protection (全国生态环境保护大会) is a high-level meeting convened by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, typically held every few years to set the direction for ecological and environmental policy. Digital ecological civilization fully expresses the objective logical requirement of Chinese-path modernization to pioneer the coordinated transformation of digitalization and ecologicalization. The synergy between “digital” and “ecological” not only points out the green development direction of Chinese-path modernization but also nurtures its smart momentum. Using ecologicalization to lead the digital transformation of Chinese-path modernization and using digitalization to empower the ecological transformation of Chinese-path modernization—the two resonate at the same frequency, advance in coordination, and become an important pathway for promoting modernization featuring harmony between humanity and nature.

中国式现代化是依托于数字生态文明建设的智慧现代化。习近平总书记在2023年全国生态环境保护大会上明确提出：“深化人工智能等数字技术应用，构建美丽中国数字化治理体系，建设绿色智慧的数字生态文明。”数字生态文明充分表达了中国式现代化开创数字化与生态化协同转型的客观逻辑要求。“数”“生”协同既指明了中国式现代化的绿色发展方向，又孕育着中国式现代化的智慧动能。以生态化引领中国式现代化数字化转型，以数字化赋能中国式现代化生态化转型，二者同频共振、协同共进，成为推进人与自然和谐共生的现代化的重要途径。

Digital ecological civilization possesses advantages that traditional industrial civilization cannot match. To advance harmony between humanity and nature through digital ecological civilization, Chinese-path modernization must, first, rely on the drive of green and smart technological innovation to enhance the precision of ecological governance. This requires both building an all-round, whole-process digital platform to promote information connectivity and data sharing, creating an integrated big-data system for the ecological environment, and using artificial intelligence and big data to achieve dynamic perception and real-time monitoring of ecological and environmental information across all regions, all dimensions, and all elements, adapting measures to local conditions, times, and categories. Second, it must rely on the drive of green and smart technological innovation to strengthen the systematic nature of ecological civilization construction. This requires both using advanced technologies such as digital twins and simulation to comprehensively grasp the structural, hierarchical, and dynamic evolutionary laws of ecosystems, systematically assessing the quality and trends of the ecological environment, and formulating systematic plans for ecological and environmental governance, and using technological advantages such as cloud computing and data sharing to enhance the capacity and effectiveness of multi-party collaborative governance among government, enterprises, and society, systematically advancing the coordinated development of the “Five-Sphere Integrated Plan.” [6]6 The “Five-Sphere Integrated Plan” (五位一体) is the overall plan for advancing socialism with Chinese characteristics, covering economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological civilization construction. Third, it must rely on the drive of green and smart technological innovation to enhance the openness and interactivity between humanity and natural ecosystems. This requires both creating an open and transparent information dissemination environment through modern communication technologies, constructing an open and shared big-data ecological system, enabling diverse subjects to maintain good and orderly communication and interaction, and using open and shared digital technologies to empower green, low-carbon, and circular development, promoting the benign and orderly development of natural ecosystems, and achieving the sustainable development of the material transformation process between humanity and nature.

数字生态文明具有传统工业文明无法比拟的优势。中国式现代化以数字生态文明推进人与自然和谐共生，一是要依靠绿色智慧的科技创新驱动，提升生态治理的精准性，既要通过构建全方位、全过程的数字化平台，推动信息联通与数据共享，打造生态环境一体化大数据体系，又要借助人工智能、大数据实现全地域、全方位、全要素动态感知和实时监测生态环境信息，因时因地制宜、分区分类施策。二是要依靠绿色智慧的科技创新驱动，强化生态文明建设的系统性，既要借助数字孪生、模拟仿真等先进技术全面掌握生态系统的结构性、层次性及动态演化规律，系统评判生态环境质量及变化趋势，制定生态环境治理的系统化方案，又要借助云计算与数据共享等技术优势，增强政府、企业与社会多方协同共治的能力与效果，系统推进“五位一体”协调发展。三是要依靠绿色智慧的科技创新驱动，增进人类与自然生态系统的开放性与互动性，既要通过现代通信技术营造开放透明的信息传播环境，建构开放共享的大数据生态体系，让多元主体保持良好有序的交流互动，又要以开放共享的数字技术赋能绿色、低碳与循环发展，促进自然生态系统的良性有序发展，实现人与自然之间物质变换过程的永续发展。

(The author is Secretary of the Party Committee and Professor at Ludong University)

（作者系鲁东大学党委书记、教授）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧