The Communist Party of China (CPC), which observed the centenary of its founding on July 1 with a very assertive speech by Xi Jinping, has much to celebrate and the world, even a divided one, has to acknowledge its accomplishments. A country which suffered oppression by multiple colonial powers and extreme poverty and frequent famines is today a global power with modern industrial strength. It has lifted nearly 800 million out of absolute poverty.
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The victory of the CPC-led revolution in 1949 and founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the launching of the economic reforms in 1978 are major landmarks in this story. That China has effectively handled the challenge of the pandemic, revived its economy and sent a mission to Mars makes the occasion more joyful for it. Xi announced the achievement of the goal of building a “moderately well-off society in all respects”, set at the 16th Party Congress in 2002, besides underlining, in strong terms, China’s determination to defend its territorial identity.
This is also a time to reflect on the nature of CPC’s century-old mission articulated with a fresh perspective from time to time. What seems to be the running thread, irrespective of leadership changes, is the commitment to building China into a modern industrial nation that competes with the West — a goal set by the late 19th century reformers who wanted a rich country and a strong nation. The CPC, born in the aftermath of the anti-imperialist May Fourth Movement of 1919, has turned out to be the most powerful instrument to accomplish that nationalist goal.
Xi has pursued a determined policy of establishing the party’s direct role in every aspect of decision-making, even encouraging an ideological line in his own name — the Xi Jinping Thought in a New Era. On democracy, he has a different position, defending China’s unique system, and that is bound to invite questions. His foreign and domestic policies — the Belt and Road Initiative and Cooperative, Comprehensive Security, refocusing the economy towards domestic consumption while continuing to produce selective goods for the global market under the Dual Circulation concept, orienting “Make in China” towards innovative fifth and sixth generation technology, and the new urbanisation and zonal development programmes — are all markers of the modernity mission.
At a time when Western industrialisation has come in for critical scrutiny due to the enormous damage it has wrought on the natural environment and generated social inequalities and regional disparities in all countries — fault lines that have become sharper in the wake of Covid-19 — China’s persistence with the Western path may be a disappointment.
For sure, every generation of CPC’s leadership has tried to make China’s path different from that of the West’s. Several analysts regard the Mao period from 1949 to 1976 as attempts to steer China on a different path. They highlight the Great Leap Forward, People’s Communes of 1958-1960 and the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976 as experiments in radical socialist policies with seriously adverse consequences such as famine deaths, political persecution and killings.
But even during those turbulent years, building industrial and military strength and conducting scientific and technological research in collaboration with friendly foreign countries was an underlying theme in Chinese government policies.
After Deng Xiaoping invited Western financial capital and technological know-how and launched the Reform and Open Door Policy in 1978, this process got into full swing. Deng’s successor Jiang Zemin, who took over as CPC General Secretary in the wake of the suppression of the Tiananmen uprising in 1989, pursued this industrialisation policy with great vigour. The result of this strategy is China’s great economic success. From a per capita national income of about $250 in 1980, China has reached over $10,000 in 2020 even though it still remains a lower middle-income country.
China has emerged as not only the world’s second largest economy but seems poised to overtake the US in 2036 — it has, in fact, surpassed the US in many areas of high-tech. So much so that President Biden has announced a long-term strategy of maintaining US dominance in these concerned fields.
The urge to be different has always prompted CCP leaders to add new dimensions to the modernisation strategy. When Hu Jintao succeeded Jiang in 2002, the problem of rising income inequality and rural-urban gap as well as increasing environmental pollution in China was widely discussed in the country and abroad. China’s carbon emission surpassed that of the US around 2009 and the Gini coefficient has remained between 43 and 49 for the past decade.
The Hu Jintao regime took several initiatives, packaged as building a “Harmonious Society”. It also gave the slogan of turning China into a “Beautiful Country” by taking a large number of anti-pollution, energy-saving measures.
The industrialisation drive has, however, persisted and China remains the world’s top carbon emitter. Rural-urban income gap has increased — the average urban income being nearly five times that of the rural. While better living conditions have greatly benefitted the lives of women at home, the employment pattern and political representation in decision-making shows continuing patriarchal domination. China’s success story has taken it into a “success trap”.
Xi has taken this modernisation mission forward — with its successes, limitations and problems — by focusing on what he calls a “New Era”. Coming to power after the 2008 global economic crisis which brought the weakness of the Western system into sharp relief, he has affirmed that China’s economic success means that it’s a legitimate big player. The CPC’s centenary celebrations — as well as that of the founding of PRC in 2049 — have been imbued with concrete political and economic agenda. Xi’s policies have to be understood in this backdrop.
In the recent weeks, Xi has been emphasising the need for the Party’s 91 million members, especially the youth who constitute some 40 per cent of the membership, to recall the “original aspiration” of the founders. That vision of socialism and communism seems to have become a platform of nationalist mobilisation as China celebrated the gains of a “moderately prosperous society”. The commitment to modern industrialisation, and the larger process of “modernisation”, is even more explicit in the goal set for the second centenary in 2049 — building China into a “great modern strong prosperous socialist country”. Xi affirmed that goal on July 1.
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- Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, a collective of the United States, United Kingdom and Norway governments, came up with a $1 billion fund.
- LEAF is supported by transnational corporations (TNCs) like Unilever plc, Amazon.com, Inc, Nestle, Airbnb, Inc as well as Emergent, a US-based non-profit.
- The world lost more than 10 million hectares of primary tropical forest cover last year, an area roughly the size of Switzerland.
- Ending tropical and subtropical forest loss by 2030 is a crucial part of meeting global climate, biodiversity and sustainable development goals. Protecting tropical forests offers one of the biggest opportunities for climate action in the coming decade.
- Tropical forests are massive carbon sinks and by investing in their protection, public and private players are likely to stock up on their carbon credits.
- The LEAF coalition initiative is a step towards concretising the aims and objectives of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism.
- REDD+ was created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It monetised the value of carbon locked up in the tropical forests of most developing countries, thereby propelling these countries to help mitigate climate change.
- It is a unique initiative as it seeks to help developing countries in battling the double-edged sword of development versus ecological commitment.
- The initiative comes at a crucial time. The tropics have lost close to 12.2 million hectares (mha) of tree cover last year according to global estimates released by Global Forest Watch.
- Of this, a loss of 4.2 mha occurred within humid tropical primary forests alone. It should come as no surprise that most of these lost forests were located in the developing countries of Latin America, Africa and South Asia.
- Brazil has fared dismally on the parameter of ‘annual primary forest loss’ among all countries. It has lost 1.7 mha of primary forests that are rich storehouse of carbon. India’s estimated loss in 2020 stands at 20.8 kilo hectares.
- Between 2002-2020, Brazil’s total area of humid primary forest reduced by 7.7 per cent while India’s reduced by 3.4 per cent.
- Although the loss in India is not as drastic as in Brazil, its position is nevertheless precarious. For India, this loss is equivalent to 951 metric tonnes worth carbon dioxide emissions released in the atmosphere.
- It is important to draw comparisons between Brazil and India as both countries have adopted a rather lackadaisical attitude towards deforestation-induced climate change. The Brazilian government hardly did anything to control the massive fires that gutted the Amazon rainforest in 2019.
- It is mostly around May that forest fires peak in India. However, this year India, witnessed massive forest fires in early March in states like Odisha, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram among others.
- The European Union’s Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service claimed that 0.2 metric tonnes of carbon was emitted in the Uttarakhand forest fires.
- Implementation of the LEAF Coalition plan will help pump in fresh rigour among developing countries like India, that are reluctant to recognise the contributions of their forest dwelling populations in mitigating climate change.
- With the deadline for proposal submission fast approaching, India needs to act swiftly on a revised strategy.
- Although India has pledged to carry out its REDD+ commitments, it is impossible to do so without seeking knowledge from its forest dwelling population.
Context:-
At the recently concluded Leaders’ Summit on Climate in April 2021, Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, a collective of the United States, United Kingdom and Norway governments, came up with a $1 billion fund plan that shall be offered to countries committed to arrest the decline of their tropical forests by 2030.
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Why LEAF Coalition?
Brazil & India
According to the UN-REDD programme, after the energy sector, deforestation accounts for massive carbon emissions — close to 11 per cent — in the atmosphere. Rapid urbanisation and commercialisation of forest produce are the main causes behind rampant deforestation across tropical forests.
Tribes, Forests and Government
Disregarding climate change as a valid excuse for the fires, Indian government officials were quick to lay the blame for deforestation on activities of forest dwellers and even labelled them “mischievous elements” and “unwanted elements”.
Policy makers around the world have emphasised the role of indigenous tribes and local communities in checking deforestation. These communities depend on forests for their survival as well as livelihood. Hence, they understand the need to protect forests. However, by posing legitimate environmental concerns as obstacles to real development, governments of developing countries swiftly avoid protection of forests and rights of forest dwellers.
For instance, the Government of India has not been forthcoming in recognising the socio-economic, civil, political or even cultural rights of forest dwellers. According to data from the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs in December, 2020 over 55 per cent of this population has still not been granted either individual or community ownership of their lands.
To make matters worse, the government has undertaken systematic and sustained measures to render the landmark Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 ineffective in its implementation. The Act had sought to legitimise claims of forest dwellers on occupied forest land.
Various government decisions have seriously undermined the position of indigenous people within India. These include proposing amendments to the obsolete Indian Forest Act, 1927 that give forest officials the power to take away forest dwellers’ rights and to even use firearms with impunity.
There is also the Supreme Court’s order of February, 2019 directing state governments to evict illegal encroachers of forest land or millions of forest dwellers inhabiting forests since generations as a measure to conserve wildlife. Finally, there is the lack of data on novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) deaths among the forest dwelling population;
Tardy administration, insufficient supervision, apathetic attitude and a lack of political intent defeat the cause of forest dwelling populations in India, thereby directly affecting efforts at arresting deforestation.
Way Forward
Tuntiak Katan, a global indigenous leader from Ecuador and general coordinator of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, aptly indicated the next steps at the Climate Summit:
“The first step is recognition of land rights. The second step is the recognition of the contributions of local communities and indigenous communities, meaning the contributions of indigenous peoples.We also need recognition of traditional knowledge practices in order to fight climate change”
Perhaps India can begin by taking the first step.