Circular economy in China – the environmental dimension of the harmonious society

Abstract

This paper discusses China’s policy of developing an ecologically based circular economy (CE). In this paper, CE is understood as the environmental dimension of the wider vision of China as a ‘harmonious society’, formulated by the 16th Party Congress in 2002 in response to the social and environmental problems following in the wake of the unfettered economic growth policy of China after Mao Zedong’s death in 1976. The 18th Party Congress of CCP in 2012 further strengthened the official resolve to develop China as an ‘ecological civilization’ characterized by harmony between man and nature under the epitome ‘Beautiful China’. The paper discusses CE in this wider context. It is based on a review of literature on CE available in English. The aim is to present a more comprehensive understanding and critique of the Chinese version of CE as part of a wider policy for socioeconomic transformation and development of an ecologically based society, than has so far been done. The paper concludes by discussing bottlenecks and challenges confronting the implementation of CE in this wider socioeconomic context. The main problems are claimed to be the challenge of implementing CE as a top-down social engineering process and the lack of civil society involvement.