Governance Studies

(Bimonthly)

Volume 38，Number 3，May.2022

ABSTRACTS

Fully Understand the Long-term Nature of Achieving Common ProsperityLi Shi（4）

Abstract: Realizing common prosperity is not only a long-term but also a difficult process. We should have a full understanding of the long-term nature of achieving common prosperity. From three aspects, realizing common prosperity requires long-term efforts and struggle. First, from the high standard of common prosperity in the future, realizing common prosperity requires a long-term development process. Second, from the perspective of China's prosperity, the realization of common prosperity will go through a long and arduous process. Third, from the perspective of the path to common prosperity, we should further deepen reform and policy adjustments; promoting deep-seated reforms is a long-term and complex process.

Keywords: common prosperity; reform of income distribution system; public service

Risks, Challenges and Pathways towards Carbon Peaking and Climate Neutrality in the Context of High-quality DevelopmentZhu Xinkai and Gong Binlei （13）

Abstract: Achieving carbon peaking and climate neutrality goals is a major strategic decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. At present, structural contradictions in China's population structure, investment efficiency, and energy supply and demand are the three main obstacles. China plans to move from “carbon peaking” to “climate neutrality” within three decades from 2030 to 2060, which is shorter than most developed countries. Therefore, China is facing greater challenges in the technical, economic, and social. It must balance the relationship between economic growth and carbon reduction. Success relies upon building a “1+N” policy system, promoting low-carbon industries, establishing a low-carbon investment market, increasing R&D investment in low-carbon technologies, and jointly promoting air pollution control with low-carbon control.

Keywords: carbon peaking and climate neutrality; high-quality development; transformation risk

A Study of the Coordinated Development of Energy Supplies and the Demand for Carbon NeutralityLin Boqiang, Zhan Yanhong, and Sun Chuanwang（24）

Abstract: Building a low-carbon and efficient energy system is the key driver for realizing carbon neutrality in China. The long-term requirement of green development has injected new connotations into the coordinated development of the energy system. The coordinated development of energy supplies and the demand for carbon neutrality consists of five aspects: the deep integration of the energy industrial chain, the spatial equilibrium of energy production and sales, the development of energy technology, the interaction of energy markets, and the coordination of policy systems. During the energy transition, the coordination of energy supplies and demand must be “active, strong and dynamic” rather than “passive, weak and static” if synergy within the energy sub-systems is to be achieved. The in-depth transformation of the energy system should not only solve the problems of energy misallocation in quantity, but also promote the deep coupling of energy supply and demand in industry, space exploration, technology, markets, and policy systems.

Keywords: carbon neutrality; energy supply and demand equilibrium; policy coordination; green and low-carbon development

Construction of the “Green Silk Road” towards Global Carbon Neutrality —— China’s Path ChoiceFang Kai, Xi Jixuan and Li Chenglin（35）

Abstract: The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has made substantial progress. However, countries partnering in BRI face practical challenges, such as rapid growth in carbon emissions, severe carbon leakage, and various obstacles to carbon peak and neutrality. Climate change is increasingly preventing the BRI nations from achieving sustainable development. The construction of the “Green Silk Road” must be sped up from a carbon neutrality perspective. Therefore, this paper presents the following policy recommendations: strengthen green and low-carbon cooperation with BRI countries at the national level; build a green development system at the BRI level; propose a Chinese solution to climate governance risks at the global level.

Keywords: carbon neutrality; the Belt and Road initiative; Green Silk Road

Planning China, Institutional China, and Real China: The Political Logic of Development and Governance Zhang Shuping（45）

Abstract: The changes in China's politics from ancient to modern have put forward two crucial issues in modern Chinese state building, namely, development and governance. From the development perspective, there was derived the great strategic task of construction of the state planning system. From the governance persepctive, there was derived another great strategic task of construction of the state institutional system. Centering on state development and state governance, the political logics of “seeking modernity through emancipation”“seeking emancipation through development”and “seeking development through governance” have been successively formed in modern Chinese state building, thus different political forms have been generated. These different political forms profoundly determined the implementation of the state planning system and the state institutional system and their relations with each other. From “omnipotent planning” to “central planning” and then to “comprehensive planning”, from the construction of “state founding institutions” to “interrelated institutions” and then to “comprehensive institutions”, the intersection and confluence of “planning China” and “institutional China” inherently gave rise to the problem of constructing the “real China”. On the road to the future, the political logic of “seeking governance through democracy” bred by the political logic of “seeking development through governance”, will lead the interaction patterns among “planning China” “institutional China” and “real China”. Thus, this will mark the complete transcendence of modern Chinese state governance based on development over the traditional form of state governance.