What does Xi Jinping’s “Two Mountains” theory really mean?
Hi, everyone, how are you?
Many of you may have heard about the “Two Mountains” theory of Chinese President Xi Jinping. It is an important guidance to China’s ecological civilization development. What did he really mean by saying this? I did a bit research and would like to present to you as the following.
It was on August 15, 2005, when Xi Jinping, then the leader of Zhejiang Province on the east coast of China, inspected Yucun village in Anji County of Huzhou City, where he talked about “two mountains" for the first time.
I found this China Daily report through which we can learn a bit of what happened at that time and some background of the Huzhou City.
“In August 2005, Xi Jinping, then-Party chief of Zhejiang province, visited Yucun village in Anji, Huzhou city.
Xi hailed the village's move to close mines that pollute and adopt ecological tourism by taking advantage of natural scenic views. "We should never follow outdated modes of development. In fact, clear waters and lush mountains themselves mean gold," he said.
It was during this trip Xi proposed the important "Two Mountains" theory, calling clear waters and lush mountains invaluable assets comparable to the gold and silver of legend.
The theory revealed the development path for Huzhou. At the beginning of the century, Huzhou's bedrock industries were all energy consumers. Natural resources like bamboo were nearly depleted, and rural residents were confronted with a dirty, messy environment.
Starting in 2003, Huzhou joined Zhejiang province's action plan to rejuvenate the countryside and set up exemplary ecological villages. The city also piloted the Beautiful Village initiative in 2008.
Huzhou's economy has shifted to family farms, tourism and accommodation for economic development. Farm tourism revenue grew 28.1 percent year-on-year, churning out 8.23 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) in 2017.
Natural resources also contribute to Huzhou's economic boom, with local bamboo products occupying 20 percent of the national market.
To maintain sustainable growth, Huzhou is vying for research talent on ecological issues. A total of 10 Chinese academicians work in Huzhou's Geographical Information Industry Park. Its output reached 6 billion yuan in 2017, contributing 468 million yuan in taxes.
Huzhou, a small city with 460,000 registered local residents, now boasts 13 academic workstations, attracting experts and scholars with doctorates. They have made significant progress in emissions reduction, water treatment, solid waste treatment, manure processing and battery recycling.”
(http://english.scio.gov.cn/m/topnews/2018-05/08/content_51175998.htm)
The “Two Mountains” theory, which in Chinese language can be translated directly as “Clear water and lush mountains are gold and silver mountains,” is usually understood as “Clear water and lush mountains are invaluable assets." “Gold mountains and silver mountains” in Chinese language means huge treasures.
Nine days after the trip, Xi published a commentary entitled "Clear Water and Lush Mountains Are Invaluable Assets Too" in the "Zhijiang Xinyu" column of Zhejiang Daily. In the comment, Xi Jinping pointed out,
"We pursue harmony between human and nature, between economy and society, colloquially, that is, we want clear water and lush mountains as well as gold and silver mountains.
“In Zhejiang province, 70% of the area are mountains, 10 % are rivers and lakes, while 20% are farm lands.Many places have ecological advantages with clear water and lush mountains. If we can take the ecological advantages to develop economy, such as developing eco-agriculture, eco-industries, eco-tourism, the clear water and lush mountains becomes gold and silver mountains. Clear water and lush mountains can bring us gold and silver mountains (here it means huge treasures), but they can not be bought with money, even gold and silver mountains can not be enough to change for them. Sometimes clear water and lush mountains are contradicted to gold and silver mountains, while sometimes else both are in dialectic unity. If we can not get both, we have to know what is the opportunity cost, know what we should choose, know how to aufheben. There are things must be done and things must not be done. We should unswervingly follow the scientific outlook on development to build a resources-saving and environment-friendly society with harmony between human and nature. When we have options, we should choose the right direction, create opportunity, let the clear water and lush mountains keep on bringing gold and silver mountains to us.”
Scientific outlook on development is the key point of Hu Jintao, Xi’s predecessor’s policy. It attached importance on development, taking people’s interests as the core of the goal, insisting that development is for people, relying on people, and the outcome should be enjoyed by people. The basic requirement of it is comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development.
The Yu village Xi visited was a typical example. In the 1990s, Yu village’s economy depended on the mines and cement factories. The village's collective income reached more than 3 million yuan per year, ranking first in the county. However, the ecological system of the whole village was seriously damaged.
In 2003, Anji County set the goal of creating the country's first ecological county. Since the beginning of that year, Yu village shut down mines and cement factories, but at the same time, the annual income of the village dropped from more than 3 million yuan to less than 300,000 yuan.
In 2005, after listening to the report of the local government, Xi Jinping affirmed Yu village's approach to shut down mines and cement factories, and encouraged Yu village to develop eco-tourism.
Yucun is a successful example. By 2019, the village’s collective income, mainly from eco-tourism, reached 521 million yuan, an average of nearly 50,000 for each villager, much higher than 20 years ago when most of them working in the mine industry, and the ecological environment improved greatly.
In 2006, Xi Jinping explained the “Two Mountain” theory in depth in the column "Zhijiang Xinyu", saying that the understanding of the relationship between the “two mountains” went through three stages.
"In the first stage, we exchanged clear water and lush mountains for gold and silver mountains, without considering or rarely considering the capacity of the environment, and blindly taking resources. In the second stage, we wanted gold and silver mountains as well as clear water and lush mountains. At this time the contradiction between economic development and resources scarcity as well as environmental degradation began to stand out. People realize that ecological environment is fundamental to our survival. Without lush mountains, we can not have resources to survive. In the third stage, people realize that clear water and lush mountains can continuously bring us treasures. Clear water and lush mountains themselves are gold and silver mountains. Ecological advantage is also economic advantage. It is a all-in-one, harmonious and unified relationship. This stage is a higher realm, represents the requirement of scientific outlook of development, represents the idea of developing cycling economy, building resource-saving and environment friendly society. The above three stages is the process of improvement on developing idea, as well as the process of adjustment of human-nature relationship towards harmony.”
In fact, as early as 1985, when Xi Jinping was working in Zhengding county of Hebei Province, he had thought about the dialectical relationship between economic development and ecological protection, and proposed that "we would rather not earn money if it will lead to pollution". When he worked in Ningde of Fujian province from 1988 to 1990, he went to Changting County five times to inspect the soil erosion control project, attaching great importance to ecological environment.
After becoming China’s top leader, Xi Jinping has always expressed the same thinking as the “Two Mountains” theory. As we all have seen, China’s ecological civilization constructions became national policy and was written into constitutions of the party and the country. All pollution indexes show that the ecological environment has been greatly improved during the past several years. There is a latest Bloomberg report this month saying China spent seven years fighting against air pollution and got the improvement result that the United States spent 30 years to get. It is what I experienced. I did a lot research on how Los Angeles controlled the air pollution from 1960s to 1990s while I was there from 2011 to 2016, because I was so worried about Beijing’s air pollution. But when I returned to Beijing in 2016, I found the situation has been greatly improved. Now we can enjoy a whole year without smog.
From March 29 to April 1, 2020, Xi Jinping visited Yucun village again. He said, "The achievements made by Yucun village prove that the path of green development is correct, and since the road is chosen correctly, we must persist in going."
This is the story of Yucun village, where Xi Jinping stated the “Two Mountains” theory. Though the theory may be difficult to understand to some foreigners, it is easy to understand in China, especially to rural people.
Xi also has theories of “two hands” and “two birds”. If you are interested, please tell me, I would like to write about them next.