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Meredith Chen

China has reminded its officials of their lifelong responsibility for serious environmental damage on their watch, tying green efforts more closely to performance assessments in the country’s push for higher-quality growth.
The conditions and potential disciplinary action were outlined in revised rules released on Tuesday by the Communist Party and the State Council, China’s cabinet.
Under the rules, officials will be held to account for serious environmental damage “regardless of whether they have been transferred, reassigned, promoted, left their jobs or retired”.
The Central Organisation Department, the party body overseeing personnel appointments, said that despite “historic” and wide-ranging changes, underlying and longer-term pressures on environmental protection had yet to be fundamentally eased.
The changes are linked to President Xi Jinping’s “new development philosophy” and are part of China’s push to build what it describes as an “ecological civilisation”.
Both concepts feed into an environmental protection policy framework meant to shift China away from a growth model focused on quantity towards one that prioritises quality and sustainability.
More broadly, China is aiming to realise the “dual carbon” goals of reaching peak carbon emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060.
As such, the revisions signal a continued move away from GDP-focused cadre evaluations, and come as local leadership changes are being rolled out across China. Those transitions will culminate at the national party congress next year, when the focus is expected to be on changes at the upper echelons as well as endorsement of a fourth term for Xi.




The lifelong responsibility rules have been in the works for some time and are based on a trial process in 2015.
They were revised by the Politburo Standing Committee in July and take effect immediately.
The revisions have widened the scope of accountability. While the 2015 version of the rules focused on party and government officials, the revisions extend the framework to leaders of state-owned enterprises and their affiliated organisations, as well as those at public institutions and development zones.
Officials overseeing these institutions can be disciplined if they approve projects that violate environmental laws or cross ecological “red lines”, fail to properly regulate polluting businesses, mishandle major environmental incidents or neglect problems identified by environmental inspectors.
They could also be held accountable for failing to advance green development and carbon goals, or allowing environmental problems in their areas of responsibility to persist or recur.
As well as a renewed focus on the environment, the revised rules reflect Xi’s priority this year to promote a “correct view of political performance”, with greater emphasis on tangible results for the public rather than short-term economic gains.


Since March, Xi has repeatedly called on officials to create achievements that can stand the test of “practice, the people and history”. On Monday, he described the effort as a “long-term task”, urging officials to make “scientific” decisions, deliver concrete results and work for the benefit of the people.
One notable change in the revised rules is that while any punishment should be strict, it should factor in the circumstance of each official.
“Accountability for ecological and environmental damage by party and government officials should be within clear policy boundaries, with authorities accurately determining responsibility and making accountability decisions based on factors including the historical causes, nature and severity of the damage, the response and handling, the consequences and impact, and efforts to recover losses, so as to prevent accountability from becoming generalised or simplistic.”
The revised rules also drop “an order to make a public apology”, which was among the accountability measures in the 2015 version.


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Revised personnel rules tie performance to eco-impact more closely as the country shifts gear from growth to sustainability


Revised personnel rules tie performance to eco-impact more closely as the country shifts gear from growth to sustainability.


China’s Communist Party

Xi Jinping

China makes officials liable for environmental damage for life

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Revised personnel rules tie performance to eco-impact more closely as the country shifts gear from growth to sustainability

Revised personnel rules tie performance to eco-impact more closely as the country shifts gear from growth to sustainability