A Better Environment for a Beautiful China* 

April 2, 2013 

We need to strengthen publicity and education and carry out new activities to get more people to plant trees. We will protect forests in accordance with the law, persistently carry out this campaign and make it more effective. This will create a better environment for completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation. 

Our tree-planting campaign was launched more than 30 years ago. It has boosted the recovery and development of China's forest resources, and increased public awareness of the importance of tree planting and environmental protection. However, we must recognize the fact that China is still an ecologically vulnerable country with a scarcity of forest resources, and faces a long-term and arduous mission of afforestation and ecological improvement. 

Forests are the mainstay and an important resource for the land ecosystem. They are also an important ecological safeguard for the survival and development of mankind. It is hard to imagine what would happen to the earth and human beings without forests. Our Party raised a requirement to build a beautiful China at its 18th National Congress. The whole of society should enhance its ecological awareness and strengthen environmental protection in accordance with this requirement, so as to build China into a country with a good environment. 

* Main points of the speech at a voluntary tree-planting activity in Beijing. 

(Not to be republished for any commercial or other purposes.)