Under this model, resources are used with higher efficiency and reused and recycled when possible, so that pollution is minimized and waste is reduced as much as possible. It also involves the transformation of industrial organization and allocation, urban infrastructure, environmental protection, technological paradigms, and social welfare distribution.

An important part in China's effort toward sustainable development, circular economy was officially raised as a target for China's future growth in 2004. The State Council issued a file about promoting it in July 2005, making it a key guideline in the 11th Five-Year Plan and to achieve the specific goals in energy conservation and pollution reduction before 2020.

社会主义新农村 Socialist New Countryside

To address the increasingly conspicuous imbalance in the country's economic landscape, the fourth generation leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has gone to great lengths to correct the urban-rural divide. "Socialist New Countryside" is to date the most comprehensive solution it has prescribed.

The concept first appeared in early 2005 in a major policy paper on rural development. The CPC-proposed a blueprint for the country's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10)www.rr365.com. It portrays the "new countryside" as featuring "advanced production, a well-to-do life, civilized folkways, a neat look, and democratic management". As part of the campaign, the central authorities are reorienting public finance to support rural development programs.

新型工业化道路 New Path of Industrialization

A strategy for industrialization emphasizing reliance on technological progress, improved efficiency in resource and energy utilization, and sustainable economic growth.

First raised by Jiang Zemin, former president, in his report to the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2002, the blueprint aims at a balance between industrial development and environmental protection, with the focus on promoting industrial advancement through developing science and technology and giving full play to China's comparative advantage in labor resources.

Endorsed in the report of Hu Jintao to the 17th National Congress of CPC in 2007, this strategy has become a fundamental guideline for the country's economic progress.

南水北调工程 South-to-North Water Diversion Project

A major project to channel water from the Yangtze River in the southern part of the country to the north through three canals.

The project, considered by the authorities since the 1950s, was formally launched in 2002. Three 1,300-km canals will be constructed in the western, central and eastern parts of China so that water from the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River will be brought to the north, where water supply is not adequate.

With an estimated investment of 486 billion yuan, the three canals will be capable of transferring 44.8 billion cu m of water by 2050.