"Ecological civilisation" was elevated at the 18th Party Congress in 2012 and written into the state constitution in 2018, framing environmental protection as a core national goal alongside economic development. For cities it underpinned policies on green space, pollution control, ecological red lines and low-carbon development. The concept fused environmental management with state legitimacy and long-range planning. It supplied the umbrella rationale for initiatives from sponge cities to eco-cities.
It is the governing idea through which contemporary China justifies ecological constraints on urban growth and resilience-oriented planning.
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