Developing socialist ecological civilization

Since its founding, New China has been highlighting the importance of preserving resources, protecting the environment and promoting the construction of ecological civilization, making significant progress in those areas.

In the past 70 years, China has launched a series of green public campaigns including those on saving energy, afforestation, conserving water and soil, preventing natural disasters and improving public health.

In the 1950s, Chairman Mao Zedong gave a call to turn the country green. In 1978, former leader Deng Xiaoping advocated voluntary tree planting nationwide. On Nov 25, 1978, China officially launched the Northwest-North-Northeast China Shelterbelt Program. By the end of 2018, the number of person-time involved in the voluntary tree planting campaign had reached about 15.5 billion, resulting in the planting of about 70.5 billion trees. The massive green campaign in China has also contributed to the global afforestation campaign.