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China’s rapid industrialization in the last decades has engendered serious problems of natural resource depletion, ecosystem degradation, and cross-border pollution. Projections by researchers have persuaded the country’s top leadership that this model of development is simply unsustainable and must not be continued. The resources demands of a large and growing population with rapidly rising material standards of living and a shared aspiration to achieve a Western consumption-driven lifestyle cannot be met.. The challenge for the Chinese government and people is to create an alternative to Western economic development models. This alternative must enable social and political stability in a time of economic dislocation and growing expectations.

The concept of a Circular Economy (CE) has developed in China as a strategy for reducing the resource demands of and environmental damage by economic development.  The concept calls for  high resource use efficiency as a way of sustaining improvements in quality of life within natural and economic constraints.

State-owned and private enterprises, government, non-governmental organizations, and consumers all have a role in helping the country achieve the CE. Actions can be taken on  three  levels, according to the book. Firms should follow the 3R principle central to CP, namely, reducing resource use, reusing materials,,and recycling waste; industrial parks, clusters and chains should do the same, so that resources will circulate fully within the local production system; thirdly, regional integration in production and consumption should be promoted to realize resources circulation among industries and urban systems within the region. Regional integration  requires development of municipal or regional by-product collection, storage, processing, and distribution systems.