China’s Sustainable
Development
Journey towards Sustainable Development
• China’s Agenda 21 (1994)
- a model of coordinated development including the efficient use of resources
and energy, clean production and rational consumption, reduction of waste
emissions and the coordination of social and economic development with
resource and environmental protection.
• Scientific Outlook on Development (2003)
- the Scientific Outlook on Development has been formulated to meet new
requirements of development by analyzing China's own practice and drawing
on the experience of other countries in development
- takes development as its essence, putting people first as its core,
comprehensive, balanced and sustainable development as its basic
requirement, and overall consideration as its fundamental approach.
Journey towards Sustainable Development
• The Four Comprehensives (2014)
- Xi Jinping's ideological directive for governance based on China's
experiences and social changes.
- Consisting of
comprehensively building a well-off society,
comprehensively deepening reform,
comprehensively implementing the rule of law and
comprehensively strengthening the Party's discipline,
Infographics:
http://www.bjreview.com.cn/special/the_four_comprehensives.html
Rap: China’s Four Comprehensives
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8v8ZeTKaAA
Journey towards Sustainable Development
• China’s National Plan on Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development. (2016)
- 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- Key focuses in summary:
End Poverty
Eradicate Inequality = gender, education, income
Sustainable economic growth, energy use, resources
Environmental protection
Successes
SUSTAINABILITY
China’s Growth
Rebalance and
Changing Global Readjust
Model
Environment
Economic growth
model
- Finding new engines
Challenges
of growth
- Re-balance the
neglected areas
Environmental pollution
Energy depletion
Regional and rural-
urban disparities
Reasons for Re-balancing
• Erosion of comparative advantage (weakened China’s export
competitiveness)
• Over investment and Under consumption
Investment outstrip demand: For example, commercial real estate in China
has outstripped demand. Certain industries like shipyards have declared
bankruptcy.
Debt: Many investments were financed by loans. When the investment
projects fail, the loans are not repaid. Many banks land with the burden of
bad debt.
In the long run, this pattern of investment and consumption is unsustainable
because as China’s population gets older, domestic saving rates will decline
over time
• Expanding energy consumption and Environmental costs
Assess China’s approaches towards achieving
sustainable development.
Bearing in mind that the approaches/strategies are on-going and there are
yet to be conclusive results. If so, how do we assess?
Possible criteria:
• Capacity of implementation, Readiness for change
• Possible internal or external shocks
• Long term versus short term (Sustainability)
• Cost-benefit (Inclusive growth)
China: The Road to Sustainable Growth
Assessing the various aspects of rebalancing:
• Increasing Domestic Demand
(Exports/Investments versus Consumption)
• Urbanisation
(Inequality)
• Green Development
(Environment versus Economic growth)
Increasing Domestic Demand
Domestic Consumption – Can the
Potential be unleashed?
What can hinder the increase in private/household
consumption?
• Increase household savings
• Unequal income distribution
Year China Japan US
2000 28.25 8.85 4.33
2002 27.21 4.91 5.20 Table: Household Savings
2004 30.57 3.56 4.72 (Total % of household
disposable income, 2000-
2006 34.35 2.51 3.44 2015. OECD.
2008 37.32 2.52 5.09
2010 38.99 3.71 5.82
2013 38.46 0.30 5.18
2015 37.07 0.72 5.04
Government strategies
• Redistributing income and wealth
• Expand social safety net
• Increase personal consumption (expand middle class, urbanisation,
tackle supply side deficiencies)
Continued challenges
• Especially in expanding China’s social security net
- Persisting inequality which is accentuated by existing institutional
arrangement such as Hukou system
- Mismatch at the local government level
Urbanisation
Explaining Urbanisation’s impact on Economic
development
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PGO93tAhy4
S China Greater Bay Area: an ambitious scheme
with potential and challenges
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dhR5eB_oj4
Read:
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/may/05/megaregions-endless-
china-urbanisation-sprawl-xiongan-jingjinji
Assess the significance of China’s New Urbanisation
strategy to achieving sustainable development.
• The strategy is highly significant to sustainable development because
it can either ‘make or break’ China’s drives towards sustainable
development. Urbanisation has such an extensive impact that when
managed properly, it is an important tool for restructuring and
rebalancing of the economy. But when there is mismanagement, it
can also potentially de-rail the country’s goals of restructuring and
rebalancing.
** Do take note that there is a link between
urbanisation and drive to increase domestic
consumption.
Green Development
Linking Green growth to sustainable
economic development
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXBopuAyO0w
Watch: How China is creating Green Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OH5C1bklkc
Green Development and Green Growth
• Green development is a pattern of development that decouples
growth from heavy dependency on resource use, carbon emissions
and environmental damage. Instead, it promotes growth through the
creation of new green product markets, technologies, investment,
and changes in consumption and conservation behaviour.
• Green growth is the means by which green development is achieved.
- Using new technologies that enables greater energy efficiency
- Green industries/Green Products
Area of Green Development
• Green industries – economic opportunities
• Green cities – environmentally friendly and energy efficient
urbanisation
• Agriculture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEROTuaJnt0
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201809/23/WS5ba6e107a310c4cc77
5e7b48.html
Watch: In pursuit of Green development – China’s
Green dream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMP6_6MI6
UU
Watch: Closer to China – Green development
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOq2a1Qc1UY
Watch: Tianjin eco-city provides model for China’s
urbanisation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEgRryXi2a8
Major Economic Projects
Made in China 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2orzNs8Mhe0
Watch more: Geo about Made in China 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8g7ds5c76s
Belt Road Initiative
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mlIfNoLMaM
Check out this interactive website for OBOR
• https://multimedia.scmp.com/news/china/article/One-Belt-One-
Road/index.html
Consolidation
Assess China’s approaches towards achieving sustainable development.
Growth and
Environment
Exports and
Domestic Inland and Coastal
Consumption Specific
policies/strategies
Restructuring and Rebalancing
Heavy Industries and
Challenges/Dilemma Rural and Urban
Service Industry
Low cost manufacturing
and High-end
Technology/Innovation
Assess China’s approaches (increasing domestic demand)
towards achieving sustainable economic development.
Macro level:
Domestic Consumption (helps to rebalance the
economy and diversify the economic engine of growth)
Implementation level:
Capacity to support the various strategies to increase
domestic consumption
Overall assessment: Long versus Short team/ Cost-
benefit analysis
Assess China’s approaches (rapid urbanisation) towards
achieving sustainable economic development.
Macro level:
Urbanisation and building more city clusters (important to
resolve inequality and inject a new impetus of growth)
Implementation level:
Capacity to support the speed and scale of urbanisation
Overall assessment: Long versus Short team/ Cost-
benefit analysis
Assess China’s approaches (green development) towards
achieving sustainable economic development.
Macro level:
Protecting the environment whilst ensuring continuous development
(ensure a more holistic approach towards development)
Implementation level:
Willingness of stakeholders to sought a compromise between
economic growth and environmental protection/conservation
Overall assessment: Long versus Short team/ Cost-benefit analysis
Assess China’s approaches towards achieving
sustainable development.
• China’s approaches of restructuring and rebalancing seems to be
heading in the right direction (it is addressing major issues such as
environmental pollution and disparity) that are essential for
sustainability. However at this present stage, many of the specific
approaches in steering China’s economy and development towards
sustainability are still facing a lot of obstacles. Often the Chinese
government is caught in a dilemma and it will take a lot of
coordination for the various approaches to succeed.
