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I. The Choice of Implementing
a Sustainable
Development Strategy

China's modernization drive has been launched in the following
conditions: The country has a large population base, its per-capita
average of natural resources is low, and its economic development as well
as scientific and technological level remain quite backward. Along with
the growth of China's population, the development of the economy and the
continuous improvement of the people's consumption level since the 1970s,
the pressure on resources, which were already in rather short supply, and
on the fragile environment has become greater and greater. Which road of
development to choose has turned out, historically, to be an issue of
paramount importance to the survival of the Chinese people as well as
their posterity.

The Chinese government has paid great attention to the environmental
issues arising from the country's population growth and economic
development, and has made protecting the environment an important aspect
of the improvement of the people's living standards and quality of life.
In order to promote coordinated development between the economy, the
society and the environment, China enacted and implemented a series of
principles, policies, laws and measures for environmental protection in
the 1980s.

-- Making environmental protection one of China's basic national
policies. The prevention and control of environmental pollution and
ecological destruction and the rational exploitation and utilization of
natural resources are of vital importance to the country's overall
interests and long-term development. The Chinese government is
unswervingly carrying out the basic national policy of environmental
protection.

-- Formulating the guiding principles of simultaneous planning,
simultaneous implementation and simultaneous development for economic
construction, urban and rural construction and environmental
construction, and combining the economic returns with social effects and
environmental benefits; and carrying out the three major policies of
``prevention first and combining prevention with control,'' ``making the
causer of pollution responsible for treating it'' and ``intensifying
environmental management.''

-- Promulgating and putting into effect laws and regulations regarding
environmental protection and placing environmental protection on a legal
footing, continuously improving the statutes concerning the environment,
formulating strict law-enforcement procedures and increasing the
intensity of law enforcement so as to ensure the effective implementation
of the environmental laws and regulations.

-- Persisting in incorporating environmental protection into the plans
for national economic and social development, introducing to it macro
regulation and management under state guidance, and gradually increasing
environmental protection input so as to give simultaneous consideration
to environmental protection and other undertakings and ensure their
coordinated development.

-- Establishing and improving environmental protection organizations
under governments at all levels, forming a rather complete environmental
control system, and bringing into full play the governments' role in
environmental supervision and administration.

-- Accelerating progress in environmental science and technology.
Strengthening research into basic theories, organizing the tackling of
key scientific and technological problems, developing and popularizing
prac"itical technology for environmental pollution prevention and
control, fostering the growth of environmental protection industries, and
giving initial shape to an environmental protection scientific research
system.

-- Carrying out environmental publicity and education to enhance the
whole nation's awareness of the environment. Widely conducting
environmental publicity work, gradually popularizing environmental
education in secondary and primary schools, developing on-the-job
education in environ"imen tal protection and vocational education, and
training specialized personnel in environmental science and technology as
well as environmental administration.

-- Promoting international cooperation in the field of environmental
protection. Actively expanding exchanges and cooperation concerning the
environment and development with other countries and international
organizations, earnestly implementing international environmental
conventions, and seeking scope for China's role in global environmental
affairs.

Since the beginning of the 1990s the international community and various
countries have made an important step forward in exploring solutions to
problems of the environment and development. The United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development, held in June 1992, made
sustainable development the strategy for common development in the
future, and this won wide acclaim from the governments of all countries
represented at the conference.

In August 1992, shortly after that conference, the Chinese government put
forward ten major measures China was to adopt to enhance its environment
and development, clearly pointing out that the road of sustainable
development was a logical choice for China now and in the future.

In March 1994 the Chinese government approved and promulgated China's
Agenda 21 -- White Paper on China's Population, Environment, and
Development in the 21st Century. This document, proceeding from the
country's specific national conditions in these three respects, put
forward China's overall strategy, measures and program of action for
sustainable development. The various departments and localities also
worked out their respective plans of action to implement the strategy for
sustainable development.

At its Fourth Session in March 1996 China's Eighth National People's
Congress examined and adopted the Ninth Five-Year Plan of the People's
Republic of China for National Economic and Social Development and the
Outline of the Long-Term Target for the Year 2010. Both the Plan and
Outline take sustainable development as an important strategy for
modernization, thus making it possible for the implementation of the
strategy of sustainable development in the course of China's economic
construction and social development.

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