China determined to advance ecological civilization

China has demonstrated its resolute determination in environmental protection by vowing on Saturday to fight a good battle against pollution and push ecological civilization to a new level.

At a tone-setting meeting on environmental protection ending Saturday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the country will push for coordination between economic and social development and ecological civilization.

Building an ecological civilization is of fundamental importance for China's sustainable development. However, despite overall improvement, the country's progress in ecological environment has not been firm.

China's building of ecological civilization has entered a period of stress and challenges, a period that requires more quality ecological goods to meet people's ever-growing demands for a beautiful environment, and a period when it is capable of addressing prominent ecological and environment issues.

With the Chinese economy transitioning from high-speed to high-quality growth, conventional and unconventional challenges have emerged. China must face the music, as ecology and environment is closely connected with people's well-being.

In a word, the time is ripe for China to channel more energy into promoting ecological civilization and resolving environmental problems, backed by its political advantages of the centralized and unified leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the socialist system, as well as the achievements made during the 40 years of reform and opening-up.

Work should be done to meet public expectations by stepping up the building of ecological civilization and providing more quality ecological products.

Instead of providing a contingency plan, the meeting aimed to find fundamental and comprehensive solutions to address pollution, with prominent environmental problems to be tackled firstly.

For instance, to promote green development, China plans to adjust the economic and energy structures, optimize the use of all territorial space, improve the industrial layout in different regions and river valleys, foster and expand energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly sectors as well as clean production and clean energy, encourage simple, moderate, green, and low-carbon ways of life.

The country's leaders also made it clear that China must win the battle against air, water, and soil pollution -- to make the skies blue again and improve air quality as a rigid requirement; to ensure the safety of drinking water, and that black and odorous water should be rarely seen in cities; to implement the action plan concerning the prevention and control of soil pollution.

To achieve the goals, the meeting also underlined the need to tighten supervision of law enforcement to prevent superficial work and ostentation.

By strengthening institutional building and down-to-earth efforts, China expects to see a fundamental improvement in the environment, and the goal of building a Beautiful China basically attained by 2035.