Cleaning the rivers, lakes, air and soil will require decades, even if we start to act aggressively now. Our much-touted modern way of life, emphasizing consumerism and hedonism, simply runs counter to this environmental mission. So we have to be very careful of what kind of lifestyle our society is striving for.

Inclusive growth won't be possible without uprooting the social tumor of corruption. That could mean putting crooked officials behind bars so as to establish a clean government.

Such growth can only be achieved in a civil society where individual rights are respected and everyone is equal before the law. It is a society where public servants are true servants who respond to the people, not the other way around.

The declining moral standards in our society are no less worrisome. The lack of trust among people and confusion determining right from wrong have destroyed much of our healthy social web.

We also need to change the popular contemporary psyche, the seeking of quick results and measuring everything in monetary terms - a result of the overemphasis on materialism in the last three decades.

In essence, inclusive growth should really include every dimension, from the social and economic to the environmental and political.

Each of the grave challenges China faces will require many years or decades of hard work. It is unrealistic to expect them all to be solved during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015).

However, this five-year period is the time to demonstrate resolve in dealing with each of these thorny issues. There will be no panacea for solving any of these problems. It requires much hard work and less empty talk.

The author is China's Daily chief correspondent in New York. You can reach him at [email protected].