Since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro Brazil in 1992, the People's Republic of China has embraced sustainable development as a major goal of national development. China was one of the first countries in the world to have formulated its national Agenda 21 titled “China's Agenda 21 White Paper on China's Population, Environment and Development in the 21st Century”. In 2002, sustainable development was defined as one of the four major goals for building a Xiao Kang society in the early 21st century, at the 16th National Congress of communist Party of China (CPC).
