Digital supply chain finance is an innovative product created through the integration of the blockchain technology and traditional supply chain finance. This paper constructs the theoretical framework of mortgage financing from banks by enterprises in the supply chain network, and systematically analyzes the economic rationale governing the digital supply chain finance, along with its pros and cons compared with traditional supply chain finance. The findings show, when there are enough enterprises on the supply chain and sufficient qualified information about these enterprises, the consensus mechanism of the supply chain can reveal close-to-truth enterprise information and prevent information manipulation, malicious fraud, and other moral hazards so that banks can provide accessible and affordable financing services for enterprises on the chain with risks effectively controlled. Otherwise, if there are not enough enterprises on the chain and the credibility of their information cannot be guaranteed, banks will prefer traditional offline methods such as due diligence for risk control. This paper theoretically reveals that, along with the broad application of the blockchain technology in the supply chain and the resulting digitalization of enterprises, digital supply chain finance based on blockchain technology will become a more efficient and inclusive means of financial support.

Recent years have seen an increasing integration of fintech and inclusive loans, leading to significant changes in banking business models and operations. The paper analyzes the impact of fintech on bank risks and performance. The research findings show the following results. First, fintech has made banks more willing to issue inclusive loans. Second, by leveraging fintech, banks have lowered the risks associated with inclusive loans and improved their performance, particularly manifested by inclusive loans to small and micro enterprises. Third, in regard to financial geographic heterogeneity, with the increasing distance between branches and sub-branches, and head office, fintech, as an effective regulating tool, can help to improve the inclusive loan operations and risk control capabilities of remote branches and sub-branches. This paper argues that digital financial inclusion contributes to the stable operation of banks; banks can take advantage of fintech to digitalize and intelligentize financial inclusion, thereby improving business efficiency, reducing risk exposures and expanding profitability. Therefore, banks should adhere to the “prudent and stable” risk appetite and “small and decentralized” credit granting principle to make safe, convenient and impartial inclusive finance services available to a variety of market entities. When implementing the inclusive finance development strategy, head office should consider different results among branches and sub-branches due to their varied financial geographic locations, and release differentiated assessment and incentive policies to branches and sub-branches based on economic regions in a bid to minimize policy spillovers.

This paper discusses how to realize the visionary goal of “basically realizing socialist modernization by 2035 and achieving more obvious and substantial progress in the common prosperity of all people,” proposed by the fifth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Based on the Marxist political economy, this paper focuses on the theoretical and practical issues of common prosperity. It then comprehensively elaborates on the profound connotation of common prosperity, the goals, the ways by which to achieve it, and the design of indicator system and assessment methods to be used. Looking ahead to the next years, it makes a medium- and long-term analysis and forecasts on the economic and social goals related to the development of common prosperity from 2021 to 2035, analyzes the opportunities and challenges involved in achieving common prosperity, proposes to continuously narrow the three major development gaps between regions, urban and rural areas, and residents' incomes, realizes the goal of equalizing basic public services, and finally offers a strategic path by which to achieve common prosperity over a series of steps and stages. The strategic path, major tasks, and key measures for achieving common prosperity in stages featured in the Chinese experience will provide the rest of the world with references by which to solve the challenges of wealth gaps for humankind.

With the development of digital technology, the way that banks serve small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has undergone a disruptive change. Besides labor-intensive ways, banks can now serve SMEs through technology-intensive ways such as big data and artificial intelligence (AI). This has given rise to internet banks and made traditional banks face the choice of digitalization, thus igniting the technological competition in the banking sector. This paper builds a competition model among three types of banks, including small and medium internet banks with unique data advantages, large banks with economies of scale, and regional small and medium banks with comparative advantages in acquiring internal information. Then, the paper studies the digitalization strategies of different types of banks and their influence on the financing options of SMEs. The model shows that there may be a digital matching relationship between banks and SMEs in the era of AI. Large banks and small and medium internet banks have the advantage in the research and development and application of digital loan technology and serve SMEs with a more digital footprint. Regional small and medium banks have an advantage in traditional loan means and serve SMEs with a less digital footprint. This paper suggests that banks choose the transformation direction and development orientation according to their own conditions, such as bank scale, data accumulation, and internal information screening capability because this affects not only the development of banks and but also the extent to which AI can improve the financing environment for SMEs. These conclusions not only provide a theoretical basis for the decision-making mechanism of bank digitalization strategy and the applicability of AI to different types of banks but also have important policy implications for the government to better promote the digital transformation of banks and alleviate the financing constraints for SMEs.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) has in the people its roots, its lifeblood, and its source of strength. Ecological civilization is an integral part of the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan and the Five-Sphere Advancement of Socialism. Ecological civilization is a new form of human civilization written into Constitution of the People’s Republic of China and protected by the fundamental law, with the pursuit of the harmonious coexistence of human and nature as its core, and with its underlying value orientation adhering to a people-oriented development. Learning from the CPC’s century-old ecological civilization, including its germination, exploration, development, perfection, and maturity, especially in the new era, for the first time in the CPC’s century-old history, Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization is established, which specifically guides the theory and practice of ecological civilization. It is not only the inheritance and development of Marxist thoughts on the relationship between human and nature, but also fundamentally manifests its value of the supremacy of the people. The establishment of the people’s supremacy in the pursuit of ecological civilization under the leadership of the CPC differs from Western anthropocentrism or ecocentrism. It develops keen insights into important documents of people’s supremacy in the history of the CPC’s ecological civilization for the 20th century, which is of great theoretical and practical value to understand the spiritual genealogy of the CPC more completely, accurately, and systematically, to clarify the underlying value orientation of ecological civilization, to better learn and practice Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization in the new era, and to build a modernized society of harmonious coexistence between human and nature.

The development path from attaching importance to environmental protection to the theory of ecological conservation, then to piloting ecological civilization demonstration areas, marks that China’s ecological conservation has gradually moved from theoretical construction to practical exploration, based on the new idea that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.” It is still an ordeal for China’s ecological conservation in the context of global warming how to reduce carbon emission intensity while maintaining sustained economic growth. Under the dual constraints of peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060 (“dual carbon” goals), this paper employs the five national ecological civilization pilot demonstration areas (ECDAs) established in 2014 as quasi-natural experiments based on the panel data of 30 Chinese provincial regions from 2003 to 2019. Based on the analysis of the policy implementation background and the theoretical mechanism of its impact on carbon emission intensity, the synthetic control method and difference in differences method are adopted to test the impact of the construction of ECDAs on carbon emission intensity and examine the spatial spillover effect of the pilot policies. The study shows that the construction of ECDAs has significantly reduced carbon emission intensity as a whole, especially in Fujian, Guizhou, and Yunnan Provinces. Moreover, the conclusions successfully pass the robustness test. The mechanism analysis results demonstrate that the construction of ECDAs can lower carbon emission intensity through the positive incentives from boosting technological progress and developing green finance, and the reversal pressure mechanism of optimizing the energy structure and improving the market segmentation. The analysis results of the spatial spillover effect indicate that the construction of ECDAs plays a significant role in reducing carbon emission intensity in the region and its adjacent areas. Therefore, China should introduce ECDAs and the experience gained to more regions. Meanwhile, China should spare no effort to seek multi-dimensional paths to reduce carbon emissions in view of regional differences in green development, and strengthen cross-regional communications and cooperation to realize the goals of carbon emission reduction.

With the rapid development of fintech as represented by the internet, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing and big data, especially the evolution of big data and deep learning, and the major changes in financial service models and products in recent years, the development of global inclusive finance has undergone different stages, from “micro finance,” through “inclusive finance,” to “digital financial inclusion.” In the context of growing global competition in the financial sector, many countries are promoting digital financial inclusion and formulating applicable national development strategies. Therefore, it is suggested that China should further strengthen support policies, increase its influence on global financial governance, construct a long-term regulatory mechanism for digital financial inclusion, and build digital inclusive financial infrastructure in order to improve the international competitiveness of China’s financial industry.

All mankind is faced with the severe challenge to deal with climate change. Advocating the concept of “a community with a shared future for mankind,” China has taken the initiative to commit itself to emission reduction and has actively contributed its strength. According to the data on agricultural carbon emissions, it finds that non-carbon dioxide gases dominated agricultural carbon emissions, showing an overall upward trend year by year. However, a downward trend has been seen, and it was near a peak in this regard in recent years. Emissions from energy consumption of agricultural machinery may become the most significant uncertain factor for the carbon dioxide peaking of agriculture, as agriculture in China is yet to be mechanized further. The analysis above has laid a foundation for the emission reduction idea of driving the green transformation of agriculture with low-carbon measures. Specific recommendations are as follows in this regard. Carbon constraint indicators should be added to the 14th Five-Year Plan for the development of agriculture and rural areas. The methodology accounting should be expedited for agricultural carbon emissions. China should make a lot of effort to develop the agricultural carbon market and strive to employ financial means to promote low-carbon agricultural technologies.

China’s entry into common prosperity coincides with digital economy at the same period. As China gradually enters the digital era, the common prosperity is bound to rely on the digital economy, and both have a strong fit. This paper analyzes the realization path of common prosperity from the perspective of digital economy, showing that digital economy can promote not only the general growth of macro economy, namely, “making the cake bigger,” but also regional industrial decentralization, urban and rural coordination and the construction of a unified national market, which is conducive to balanced growth, namely, “dividing the cake.” Moreover, it can make up for the shortage of public services, improve the service capacity of the government, make digital infrastructure more adequate and balanced, and accelerate the equalization of basic public services. Meanwhile, digital economy may also lead to structural unemployment of labor force and other problems. Therefore, it is necessary to maximize its strengths and avoid its weaknesses in policy design so as to achieve the result with less efforts and promote the cause of common prosperity in a sustained and steady way.

The discussion of common prosperity in this paper revolves around the following two aspects. First, the promotion of common prosperity requires a solid material foundation; solving poverty as measured by the absolute income standard serves as the basic requirement of becoming rich; the future rural relative poverty is a common problem and challenge that most of China’s provinces are facing; and increasing farmers’ income is a problem that must be solved within the framework of integrated urban-rural development. Second, narrowing the income gap is one of the essential requirements of common prosperity; narrowing the income gap to a certain level and achieving the unity of the development and sharing and the harmony of efficiency and fairness constitute the essential component of “common”; and the current urban-rural absolute income gap in China remains large, which violates the concept of shared development, is not conducive to sharing the achievements of economic development by the people as a whole, inhibits economic growth, and hinders the construction of a new development paradigm. Therefore, firmly grasping the mainline of integrated urban-rural development, strengthening overall planning and top-level design, and compensating for the institutional disadvantages of the dual division of urban and rural areas should be the main strategic focuses for promoting common prosperity in China.

Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization views mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, deserts, and glaciers as an inseparable ecosystem and communities of life which should be put under integrated protection and systematic management to ensure ecological civilization in all dimensions, all regions, and at all times. By “all dimensions,” it refers to the systematic management of all the elements of ecological civilization. By “all regions,” it means the systematic management of the entire spatial elements of ecological civilization. By “all times,” it calls for the systematic management of all the components of the temporal structure of ecological civilization. Together, it refers to ecological civilization through systems engineering. This is an innovative application and advancement of materialist dialectics’ systematic methodology in ecological civilization, and a significant contribution of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization to materialist dialectics.

Financial technology (fintech) and digital currency are irreversibly reshaping the global financial system. Through the analysis of the development of fintech and digital currency, and the resulting major influences on the global financial system, this paper discusses the impact of issuing legal digital currency on a monetary base and money multiplier, and the possible influences on central banks’ monetary policies. It shows that the integration of artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things and other information technologies with traditional finance will greatly enhance the efficiency of financial service, and help to identify, quantify and minimize financial risks, and reinforce the financial agglomeration effect of traditional financial centers. At the same time, the development of digital currency entirely based on blockchain technology may weaken the financial agglomeration functions of traditional financial centers. The development of private digital currency based on blockchain is unstoppable, thus the legal digital currency of the People’s Bank of China will play an important role in restructuring the global currency framework. Taking advantage of the internet financial market, China should strengthen its infrastructure in fintech, promote integrated innovation, increase research spending on core technology, and tighten top-level design and regulation, so as to advance a faster development of fintech and digital currency.

Agricultural ecological conservation is an internal demand for the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and a basic requirement for realizing rural revitalization and building a beautiful China. Over the past 70 years, agricultural ecological progress in China has gone through three stages: preliminary exploration, in-depth development, and quality improvement in the new era. It has gained valuable historical experience in terms of the premise of liberating and developing productive forces, the principle of coordinating economy and ecology, and the guarantee of systems and laws. Therefore, agricultural ecological conservation in the new era should adhere to the guidance of the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, strengthen the awareness of agricultural ecological conservation, stick to the path of green ecological agriculture development, improve the evaluation system of agricultural ecological conservation, and deepen international cooperation in this field.

Shared development is an important means by which to improve people’s livelihood and well-being in the new era. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016–2020), China has made great achievements in the three major aspects of targeted poverty alleviation through industrial development, development of special rural areas, and equalization of urban and rural infrastructure and basic public services. In addition, the important experience of multi-agent participation, multi-mode guidance, and multi-line promotion has been accumulated in the individual, regional and urbanrural dimensions. However, there remain some deficiencies, such as low policy efficiency, poor matching ability, and prominent structural problems. At the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025), the task of enriching farmers through sharing has been faced with many challenges, such as major changes in the focus of poverty governance, greater numbers of restraints on the development of special rural areas, and heavy responsibilities of equalizing urban and rural infrastructure and basic public services. Therefore, it is necessary to acquire a profound understanding of the new development concept, and to continuously enrich farmers through sharing in terms of accelerating the improvement of the institutionalized poverty reduction system in the new era, actively building a green development system of agriculture and animal husbandry in special rural areas, and striving to create a fair and complementary urban and rural infrastructure and basic public service system.