Xi Jinping’s Eight Musts
We must persist in:
- maintaining the dominant role of the people
- liberating and developing social productive forces
- advancing reform and opening-up
- safeguarding social fairness and justice
- marching on the path of becoming well-to-do together
- stimulating social harmony
- peaceful development
- supporting the leadership of the Party.
Street cleaners on the move.
Photo: Hsing Wei
The Five Cardinal Principles
The Four Cardinal Principles, which are to be upheld:
- the socialist path
- the people’s democratic dictatorship
- the leadership of the Communist Party
- Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.
The Eight Musts have been added to this list to create the Five Cardinal Principles.
Creating an Environmentally Friendly Culture (shengtai wenming jianshe 生态文明建设)
Wen Jiabao, in his outgoing speech as Premier in early March, described significant progress in ‘constructing a civilised ecology’, or ‘creating an environmental-friendly culture’. A ‘civilised ecology’ must at the very least be one in which its citizens can safely breathe the air. As we have noted elsewhere in this volume, the government has a tough job ahead:
- China is home to sixteen of the top twenty most polluted cities in the world
- Just one percent of urban Chinese breathe air that is considered safe by European Union standards
- In January 2013, Beijing’s air quality was described as ‘hazardous’, with PM2.5 readings reaching over forty times those considered safe by the World Health Organisation
- According to the Global Burden of Disease Study, air pollution in China contributed to 1.2 million premature deaths in 2010, accounting for nearly forty percent of the world’s total and making ‘smog’ the fourth highest risk factor for deaths in China (following dietary risks, high blood pressure and smoking).
