As the largest developing country and the largest developed country in the world, China and the United States (respectively) will play a significant role in the future of our planet. The roads our two countries take will have an equally important impact upon the prospect of sustainable development and the well being of humankind as a whole.

As a developing country, China continues to grow and evolve at a rapid pace. Since the late 1970s when China adopted a new policy of reform and openness, we have made noticeable achievements in economic growth, social progress and improvements in living standards. However, this rapid growth and industrialization have been accompanied by environmental degradation and over consumption of natural resources. Without addressing these problems in an appropriate manner it will be difficult for China to maintain its present rate of development. That is why sustainable development has been identified as a national strategy for China. For the past decade this strategy of integrating economic growth with social equity and environmental stewardship has been implemented seriously.

The China-U.S. Center for Sustainable Development serves as a bridge for bilateral cooperation in the field of sustainable development between our two countries. The Center identifies cooperative projects based on practical needs, in accordance with common interests and focused on effective outcomes.

It is my belief that the China-U.S. Center for Sustainable Development can play a real and vital role in promoting, driving and supporting sustainable development cooperation between our two countries.

The United States and China represent critical dimensions of the human enterprise and share a determining influence on the future of the planet. The China-U.S. Center for Sustainable Development supports intelligent action in pursuit of a prosperous future not just for our own children, but for all children, of all species, for all time. We invite businesses, governments, organizations and individuals to join with us without concern for conflicts of interest to develop sustaining enterprises - initiatives based on eco-effective design principles that celebrate and profit from humanity's interdependence with other living systems. By demonstrating the commercial, social and environmental advantages of sustainable enterprises, the Center aims to chart a positive, hopeful course for human endeavor.

Rather than seek simply to maintain or reduce the impacts of industry, strategies are emerging to create economic systems and products that have positive, regenerative impacts on human communities and the natural world - by design. Well-designed industrial plants, for example, can purify air, accrue solar income, produce more energy than they consume, create habitat, enrich soil and invite the return of native species. Like trees, they can enrich the places they inhabit.

In pursuit of a prosperous, equitable future, our strategy is to engage leaders and citizens from both countries in commercial projects that illustrate the ways in which sustaining design and development serve nature, the marketplace, and human communities. It is our sincere hope that these projects will transform the concept of sustainability into a broad spectrum of intelligent, fruitful engagement with the world. We must reach for nothing less than the magnificent re-evolution of human enterprise.