BEIJING, March 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On March 12, China’s Ecological and Environmental Code was adopted at the closing meeting of this year’s session of the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature.
A legal and environmental milestone, the code draws together China’s experience in areas including pollution control, ecological conservation, and green and low-carbon development.
Today, eco-environmental protection and sustainable development have become core global issues. China’s Ecological and Environmental Code, the first of its kind in the world, offers an important reference for other countries in addressing current challenges and ensures the country forges ahead more resolutely along a green path of development.
An ancient Chinese saying goes, “The sovereign should align their rule with the order of Heaven and Earth, and help foster what befits them.” It is a quote from the Book of Changes, one of China’s oldest surviving classics, traditionally dated to the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 1046-771 B.C.). It conveys the idea that human beings should observe and comprehend the laws governing nature, and align their conduct with those natural principles.
On May 18, 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping quoted this line in a speech at the National Conference on Eco-Environmental Protection. He noted that the Chinese nation has always respected and cherished nature, and that China has nurtured a rich ecological culture over more than 5,000 years of civilization.
The rule of law provides reliable safeguards and serves as a solid foundation for protecting lucid waters and lush mountains. Only by enforcing the strictest institutions and the most rigorous legal framework can respect for nature, adaptation to nature and protection of nature be transformed from ideas to concrete action, and from advocacy to binding legal obligations.
China attaches great importance to eco-environmental governance. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the concept of ecological progress has been incorporated into the overall blueprint for the country’s economic and social development.
Guided by the vision that “green is gold,” China has advanced the Beautiful China Initiative, aiming to achieve harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature. It has designated strictly protected zones, established environmental standards that must not be breached and imposed caps on resource exploitation. Comprehensive policy packages targeting air, water and soil pollution have also been introduced. As part of broader ecological restoration efforts, the country launched a 10-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River in 2021 to allow aquatic ecosystems to recover, and has strengthened protection of the Yellow River Basin. At the same time, China has taken steps to promote a green economic transformation, including spearheading renewable energy development, establishing a national carbon emissions trading market and continuing large-scale afforestation efforts.
These measures have led to significant improvements in China’s ecological environment. The national average concentration of PM2.5, or fine particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or smaller, a key indicator of air pollution, fell from 68 micrograms per cubic meter in 2013 to 28 micrograms per cubic meter in 2025. The surface water quality of the main streams of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers has remained at Grade II, the second-best level in China’s five-tier water quality scale, for many years in a row. Soil environmental quality has shown steady improvements. The number of recorded species within China’s territory increased from 67,000 in 2013 to 148,000, and the threat levels of nearly 500 species of wild fauna and flora have been downgraded. These achievements are a strong testament to the ancient wisdom demonstrated today in aligning with the order of Heaven and Earth and fostering what befits them.
By enshrining its theoretical, institutional and practical achievements, China’s Ecological and Environmental Code lays the legal groundwork for efforts to incorporate harmony between humanity and nature into Chinese modernization.
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