Scientometrics

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2782-y

Bibliometric and review of the research on circular

economy through the evolution of Chinese public policy

Tiening Cui1 • Jimei Zhang1

Received: 23 December 2017

Ó Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2018

Abstract In over 10 years, China remarkably progressed in the research and practice of
circular economy. This paper presents a comparative study of the development of circular
economy driven by the China’s public policy and research. We conducted a bibliometric
literature review based on the core journals listed in China National Knowledge Infras-
tructure and Scopus and Web of Science databases with the CiteSpace V over the period of
2000–2016 as the background. We selectively analyzed 248 articles to determine research
trends and gaps in China and then combined them with the practices of circular economy in
China’s three ‘‘Five-Year Plans’’, namely, the 10th, 11th, and 12th, to summarize the
development path of the research and practice of circular economy based on their inter-
action while exploring new potential directions of research. Results show evident inter-
active feedback between public policy and academic research. After 2010, the number of
published Chinese domestic journals showed a decreasing trend and an upward trend in
international journals and received increased international attention. During the 12th Five-
Year Plan period, circular economy research and practice significantly developed. When
China entered the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016–2020), the development of circular
economy played a much important role as it is promoted as an important part of the
ecological civilization and comprehensive construction of well-off society (in 2020). The
corresponding theoretical study and practice are expected to further make remarkable
progress.

Keywords Circular economy
Bibliometric
Development review
China

& Tiening Cui

cuitiening@163.com
1
School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Technology, 100 Ping Le Yuan,
Chaoyang District, Beijing 100124, China

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Introduction

Many countries strive to identify effective and efficient approaches for coordinating the
relationship between economic development and environmental protection worldwide to
achieve sustainable development, given the increasingly protuberant environmental issues
and constantly deteriorating environmental quality since the mid-twentieth century. The
concept of circular economy was first proposed by Dr. K. Boulding, an American econ-
omist, in the 1960s. He believes that the economy mode of the world should be trans-
formed from traditional cowboy to spacecraft economy mode by establishing closed-loop
material flows because the former is unsustainable. Frosch and Gallopoulos (1989) offi-
cially mentioned industrial ecology. Pearce and Turner (1991), a British economist,
introduced ‘‘circular economy’’, whereas ‘‘recovery economy’’ was proposed by Hawken
(1995). McDonough (2002) emphasized the need for an economic system that is operated
as a ‘‘cradle to cradle’’ mode. ‘‘Decoupling economy’’ (by Factor 10 Institution) and
‘‘material flow management’’ (by Germany) are the embodiment of the concept of circular
economy.
In practice, Germany and Japan took the lead in introducing and promoting circular
economy development from the beginning of waste management reform. Subsequently,
developed countries and regions, such as France, the United States, Canada, and the
European Union, successively reformed their waste management, introduced laws and
regulations, and established the responsibility systems of industries for the recycling and
utilization of renewable resources. They implemented effective social supervision, eco-
nomic measures, and public opinion supervision of enterprises and industries, and sup-
ported non-governmental organizations who engaged in recycling. They simultaneously
adopted several economic incentives and other support measures to develop the recycling
industry chain. The concept of material flow management advocated by the European
Union has been transformed from ‘‘cradle to grave’’ to the whole life cycle management
concept, ‘‘from cradle to cradle’’.
The concept of circular economy was introduced to China in the 1990s. The research
and practice of circular economy in China underwent three five-year plan periods
(15 years). The five-year plan, which is called the outline of the five-year plan for national,
economic, and social development of the People’s Republic of China, plays an important
role in China’s long-term economic and societal development plan. This plan is designed
for major national construction projects, the distribution of productive resource, and the
important portions of the national economy. Moreover, it sets the targets and provides
directions for the prospects of national economic development. During the 10th Five-Year
Plan (2001–2005), China’s central government attached great significance to the circular
economy and began promoting it. In the 11th Five-Year plan (2006–2010), the goals,
deployment schemes, and projects for circular economy development were included in the
plan. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011–2015), accelerating the formation of a
resource recycling system that covers the whole society was proposed. Overall the Chinese
government strived to promote the strategic status of circular economy to establish the
relevant regulatory system and to enhance the leading role of the circular economy plan.
The pilot demonstration made remarkable achievements and some technological innova-
tion breakthrough in relevant fields. The recycling industrial system is basically formed,
some new industries appeared, the circular economy policy and mechanism are constantly
improved, and the capacity of circulating development is continuously strengthened. So we
achieved remarkable economic, environmental, and social benefits (Zhao 2015). Mathews
and Tan (2016) emphasized that no other countries in the world has set such an ambitious

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goal. To boost competitiveness, create jobs, and generate sustainable growth, the European
Commission adopted the ambitious new Circular Economy Package in December 2015 to
set a successful case in the development of circular economy internationally. However, the
influence and scale of this package would be incomparable with the implementation and
development of circular economy in China. Professor Dajian Zhu, the representative of
Chinese scholars and scientists in circular economy, was awarded by The Fortune Award
for Circular Economy Leadership, EU 2016, denoting the international affirmation and
attention on the academic achievements of circular economy in China.
The 13th Five-Year Plan (2016–2020) would be an important opportunity to transform
the circular economy development, under the guidance of the National Policy-Ecological
Civilization Construction. The circulation development pattern became one of the fol-
lowing: circulation, lower-carbon, and green development pattern, which is the most
important strategy of ecological civilization construction and an important path toward -
green growth. The summary of the experiences and lessons learned from the implemen-
tation and development of circular economy in China for the past 17 years is critical.
Ghisellini et al. (2016) collated the key words and abstracts of circular economy articles
from the two major databases, namely, Web of Science (WoS) and Science Direct from
2004 to 2014 and obtained five main relevant fields of research. Saavedra et al. (2017)
explored the theoretical contribution of industrial ecology to circular economy from the
perspective of bibliometrics. In China, scholars have reviewed the diverse fields and
profiles of circular economy. Zhang et al. (2008) concluded and summarized the conno-
tation, principles, development modes, and empirical analysis methods of agricultural
circular economy, based on the status of research on agricultural circular economy in
China. Cheng and Du (2010) reviewed and appraised the outcomes of the studies on the
selection of effective paths, modes, and strategies and the evaluation of the circular
economy for the iron steel industry. They proposed directions for future research on
circular economy for iron steel industries. Wang and Zhang (2012) analyzed the frame-
work, system, and operation modes of circular economy for tourism in China to determine
the contents and characteristics of research and identify the focus of future studies. Ma
(2017) examined research on circular economy for the coal industry through various
aspects, such as macro policies, industrial chain extension, industrial complex construction,
actual throughput, and system of circular economy. Luo and Lu (2017) adopted the
CiteSpace III software to analyze the papers related to circular economy, during
2001–2015, from Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI) database and to visualize
the atlas analysis. However, solid outcomes that can be referred for distinct and compre-
hensive conclusions are lacking. The number and fields of research papers on circular
economy have rapidly expanded to promote the requirement for comprehensive review and
systematic analysis of research on circular economy internationally and domestically. Few
comprehensive statistical analyses of current research on the progress of circular economy
in China and abroad exist, especially those combined with its development in China. Under
China’s national conditions, the research and macroeconomic policy in circular economy
development are interactive. Therefore, we analyze the research and practice progress
based on the three five-year plan periods, namely, the 10th (which is mainly the preparation
period), 11th, and 12th. We comparatively analyzed the practice and research of circular
economy to examine the path of circular economy development in China under the
interaction of public policy and research, and to analyze their future direction.

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Methodologies

Data sources

The international research data on circular economy were primarily acquired from Scopus
and WoS databases. Both databases have been extensively used in several bibliometric
analyses (Natale et al. 2011; Bajwa and Yaldram 2013; Homrich et al. 2017). The Scopus
is the most widely used abstract database, containing over 20,000 journals from more than
5000 publishers worldwide. In addition, it contains more than 800 conference proceedings
and hundreds of books. The WoS database is an influential journal citation index world-
wide. It has remarkable authority and representation that combines two databases as data
sources. Thus, we combined thse databases as a data source to make the data authoritative
and representative. The information on Chinese research on circular economy came from
the core journals of the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database. CNKI
is the largest and continuously updated Chinese academic journal full-text database that
covers natural sciences, engineering technology, agriculture, humanities, social sciences,
and other fields, and it collects approximately 8000 domestic academic journals. The
information on the practice of circular economy in China was retrieved from website
publications, including the information on policy, rules, and the implementation progress,
which were published by the national authority organization.
Our study mainly aims to develop the research and practice of circular economy in
China. Thus, we chose popular keywords in China for the corresponding research field and
period even for international database of bibliometric analysis, thereby serving as a
background for further contrast. The retrieve expressions for Scopus and WoS databases
are as follows. Thesis Titles, Abstracts, Keywords (in WoS is ‘‘Subject’’) = ‘‘circular
economy’’ or ‘‘resource saving’’ or ‘‘resource conservation’’ or ‘‘circular society’’ or
‘‘recycling society’’ or ‘‘ecological industry’’ or ‘‘eco-industry’’ or ‘‘regeneration resources
industry’’ or ‘‘resource recycling industry’’, Literature Type (in Scopus) = ‘‘Articles,
Reviews, Conference paper’’; Literature Type (in WoS) = ‘‘Article, Proceedings paper,
Review’’. The search expression in CNKI is Literature Type = Journal, Subject = ‘‘Xun-
Huan-Jing-Ji’’ or ‘‘Zi-Yuan-Jie-Yue’’ or ‘‘Xun-Huan-Xing-She-Hui’’ or ‘‘Sheng-Tai-Chan-
Ye’’ or ‘‘Zai-Sheng-Zi-Yuan-Chan-Ye’’, these simplified Chinese successively stand for
‘‘circular economy’’, ‘‘resource saving’’, ‘‘circular society’’, ‘‘ecological industry’’, ‘‘re-
generation resources industry’’; Source Journal = Core Journal. The search spanned from
2000 to 2016. After screening, 20,128 and 16,519 articles were obtained from Scopus and
WoS databases, respectively. After finishing and duplicating the data, the final counts of
the literature obtained from international and domestic databases were 25,841 and 9.592,
respectively, which form the fundamental database of bibliometric analysis for this study.

Methods

The analysis method of bibliometrics was used combined with the qualitative-quantitative
method based on the Scopus, WoS and the core journals of the CNKI database. The
methods were employed to control the study on the practice path of the circular economy
in China and to review and analyze the status of the research and practice at present and in
the future through the evolution of Chinese public policy.
First, we analyzed the spatial distribution, temporal distribution, institutes, and journals
of the retrieved literature. Second, the software, CiteSpace V, was utilized to conduct

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visualized atlas analysis. Thus, the hotspots and main directions of the research could be
analyzed through the cluster structure of keyword co-occurrence network, and the newly
developing tendency and abrupt changes in discipline development could be explored
through surged topical terms (Chen et al. 2015). In this study, the terms with high variation
frequency were detected by applying the exploration techniques for surged topical terms of
this software, and the hotspots and the development of research on circular economy for
approximately 20 years could be determined through the cluster and analyses of word
frequency and changes, respectively.
In addition to bibliometric analysis, the search results in CNKI and international
databases show that 248 important highly cited articles from high quality periodicals were
selected in theory of circular economy, industrial ecology, and circular economy for
enterprises, regional circular economy, ecological industrial complex, and renewable
resource industry fields. The obtained literature was used to further analyze and summarize
the hotspots, methods, frontiers, and research trends on circular economy and to simul-
taneously study the research and Chinese development of circular economy.

Statistical analysis

Spatial and temporal distributions

The results of the classification analysis on the literature retrieved from Scopus and WoS
databases show that the main type of literature are journal articles, accounting for 87.35%
(21,643 out of 25,841). The second type of literature includes proceeding papers that
account for 13.6% (3375 out of 25,841), including the International Conference on Energy
and Environmental Protection, International Conference on Management Science and
Engineering, International Conference on Energy Environment and Development, and
review papers (2.65%, 375 out of 25,841).
(a) Spatial distribution. A total of 25,841 studies were selected from Scopus and WoS
databases were mainly from 71 countries/regions. From 2000 to 2016, the top 10
countries with the highest contributions are shown in Fig. 1. In the selected
international database, literature from the United States (7338) holds a major share,
followed by China, in which the number of documents reached 3991, accounting for
13.7% (3556 out of 25,841), and others are mainly from developed countries, as
shown in Fig. 1.
Although the concept of circular economy was only introduced to China by Germany and
Japan in late twentieth century, research on circular economy in China is quite intensive
due to strong advocacies and promotions of the State in the early twenty-first century. The
status of circular economy in academia and social development was significantly elevated
owing to the promulgation of national policies and regulations and the implementation and
demonstration of pilot projects. Scale and prominent influences have also attracted inter-
national attention and recognition.
(b) Temporal distribution. The temporal distribution of the literature retrieved from
Scopus, WoS and CNKI databases are shown in Figs. 2 and 3.
Figure 2 shows that the research on circular economy worldwide generally showed an
upward trend, and the growth rate was relatively large. The number of Chinese publica-
tions in international journals continues to grow and became significant in the past 4 years

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France Italy Spain

2.7% 2.9% 3.4%
India
3.7%
America Germany
28.4% 4.4%
Canada
4.9%

Australia
6.9%

others England
21.2% 7.8%

China
13.7%
France Italy Spain India Germany Canada
Australia England China others America

Fig. 1 Spatial distribution of the literature on circular economy

3500
worldwide
3000 China

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

Fig. 2 Temporal distribution of circular economy literature worldwide

(2013–2016). The number of domestic literature in CNKI database has a phased feature, as
shown in Fig. 3. Based on time headway, temporal distribution presented three stages
which respectively coincide with the stages of circular economy implementation process in
China’s three five-year plan periods: The stages of the 10th, 11th, and 12th Five-Year Plan
periods.
The first stage, from 2000 to 2005, is the 10th Five-Year Plan period, began the circular
economy research and development in China. Studies circular economy has rapidly
increased since. Consequently, the amount of literature has also gradually increased. The

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1400
Number of documents
1200

1000
Starting period Rising period In-depth period
800 (10th Five-year Plan) (11th Five-year Plan) (12th Five-year Plan)

600

400

200

0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Fig. 3 Temporal distribution of circular economy literature in China (CNKI)

concept of circular economy gained the attention of all circles and received much attention
from government departments. The Chinese Ministry Of Environmental Protection
spearheaded a series of pilot projects, such as the reconstruction of old industrial areas, the
construction of ecological provinces in Liaoning Province, and the construction of an
ecological city in Guiyang. China’s top leaders have repeatedly stressed the need for a
circular economy to address there source and environmental crisis faced by the country.
The second stage, from 2006 to 2010, is the period of the 11th Five-Year Plan. The
period was significant as it exhibited the rise and development of the study of circular
economy. Fervor in studying circular economy rapidly increased, and the amount of lit-
erature consequently increased. The research field expanded extensively, originally only
focusing on the field of environmental protection but rapidly spreading to other academic
fields. Such interdisciplinary permeation exhibits many characteristics. As such, measures
for circular economy legislation and demonstration trials were vigorously promoted in
China.
The third stage, from 2011 to 2015, is the 12th Five-Year Plan period. China’s domestic
literature (in CNKI) declined, and with a significant reduction. The rapid growth of
research in the first two stages returned to rational amounts. Such phenomenon is also
associated with the circular economy development phase in China. Circular economy in
China experienced pilot projects, regulations, and policies from multiple levels and areas
after the all-round and into the substantive crucial stage. Touch systems, along with other
technical difficulties related to circular economy, rely on different related disciplines and
the in-depth fusion of research and practice. Therefore, the research field evolved along
with deepening surface development and the need for an intensive approach. Consequently,
academic research during this period was in-depth and subsiding, and the period was
relatively lengthened. In international journals, the number of Chinese authors in this field
increases, and their research received increasing attention in the international research
field. This finding shows that the status of circular economy was promoted in China’s
research and practice after the advancement of Chinese government policies, which drives
the development of circular economy. Meanwhile, research of China in related fields is at a
stage of deepening and seeking substantive breakthroughs. Therefore, the analysis of

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domestic and foreign research hot spots, ideas, methods, and real-time perspectives as well
as the acquisition of lessons from foreign research outcomes and innovations are necessary
to support the development of circular economy in China.
In China, the close interaction and feedback between academic research and govern-
ment’s public policy making is observed. Academic research influences decision-making
in a timely manner. Research achievements could be transformed into public policies. In
addition, the academic community is concerned about the government’s policy and its
orientation so that they could conduct their research under the guidance of the policy and
financial support of the Chinese government. Many studies are applied in the development
of the country. Thus, numerous research on circular economy actually meet the need of
public policies in five-year plans.

Major research institutes and periodicals

The top 10 research institutions on circular economy in Scopus and WoS databases are
shown in Table 1.
Table 1 indicates that research institutes have strong capabilities in environmental
science, ecology, and clean energy. The study of circular economy is thus integrated with
material science and engineering, environmental science and engineering, and manage-
ment science and engineering. Such study also has distinct multi-disciplinary and technical
integration characteristics. Out of the top 10 institutes, 4 are from the America and 2 are in
China. The Chinese Academy of Sciences ranks first, and its publication number is far
ahead. China evidently made great efforts and contributions to the study of circular
economy.
According to Bradford’s law on literature, most critical studies have been generally
published in a few core journals. Table 2 shows statistics of main periodicals in circular
economy from the Scopus and WoS databases.
Table 2 shows that the literature on circular economy is mainly published in the En-
vironmental Management, followed by Journal of Environmental Management. Literature
published in 2011–2016 accounts for 55% of total literature since 2000. This information
indicates that articles related to the circular economy and published in international
journals have increased rapidly in the last 6 years, and that these articles have received

Table 1 Top ten research institutes on circular economy worldwide

Ranking Institution Quantity Percentage

1 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences 442 1.71

2 The University of Queensland 234 0.91
3 United States Geological Survey 180 0.70
4 Jams Cook University 157 0.61
5 University of Oxford 141 0.55
6 University of California, Davis 139 0.54
7 University of Washington 136 0.53
8 University of Florida 127 0.49
9 Beijing Normal University 126 0.49
10 University of British Columbia 125 0.48

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Table 2 Top ten journals with the most publications of research on circular economy worldwide
Ranking Journal Impact Quantity Proportion (2011–2016)
factor (%)

1 Environmental Management 1.878 1225 41.31

2 Journal of Environmental 4.010 1133 61.61
Management
3 Ecological Applications 4.314 547 49.91
4 Science of the Total Environment 4.900 503 75.15
5 Ecology And Society 2.842 436 63.76
6 Journal of Cleaner Production 5.715 410 80.73
7 Ecological Economics 2.965 385 38.96
8 Journal of Applied Ecology 5.301 367 50.68
9 Biodiversity and Conservation 2.265 344 37.50
10 Waste Management 4.030 304 42.11

increasing attention from international journals and scholars. After 2011, high quality
journals in China and abroad have been attention worthy because they have focused on the
most recent developments and trends in circular economy. Such journals also incorporate a
high and broad international-scholar level of achievement and imply future trends and
emerging fields.

Control on research hotspot and practice process

Research hotspot

By using bibliometrics, we can analyze the hotspots and main directions of a research field
by its keywords high frequency and high degree. For the selected 9592 records from the
CNKI and 25,841 records from the Scoupus and WoS databases, we used the function of
word frequency analysis provided by CiteSpace V to determine the hotspot of circular
economy in international and domestic research. For time slicing, 2000–2016 was chosen,
with years per slice at 1 year. The keyword node type was then chosen. The highest
citation frequency (Top N per slice) was set to 30.Threshold values (c, cc, ccv) were set to
(2, 2, 15), (4, 3, 20), (4, 3, 20), where is the lowest citation frequency, cc is the co-citation
frequency, and ccv is the co-citation frequency of c and cc. Bibliometric results generated
by the software are shown that the high frequency words, ‘‘sustainable development’’,
which reflects the goals and belongingness of circular economy. Its frequency reached 418
and 78 in China and abroad individually. In the framework of the same consensus, the
academic community studies the coordination of economic and ecological resources. The
key word of high Centrality is the hub of the research field. Table 3 shows that ‘‘Years’’
represents the earliest year the keywords appeared within the retrieved time. Statistics of
key word frequency and centrality in circular economy are shown in Table 3.
As shown in Table 3, Through high frequency words, ‘‘sustainable development,’’
which reflects the goals and belongingness of circular economy, is found to be cited as
often as 418 and 2647 times in China and abroad individually. In the framework of the

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Table 3 Frequency and centrality of keywords in circular economy research worldwide

Key words (China) Frequency Centrality Years Key words Frequency Centrality Years
(worldwide)

Clean production 183 0.18 2000 Conservation 3050 0.41 2001

Eco-industry park 299 0.16 2001 System 804 0.25 2001
Resource saving 452 0.16 2000 Ecosystem 1595 0.16 2000
Sustainable 876 0.13 2000 Energy 1022 0.13 2003
development efficiency
Business 199 0.12 2000 Forest 290 0.13 2000
management
Recycled resources 80 0.11 2002 Environmental 2210 0.12 2001
protection
Index system 227 0.08 2005 Industrial 1250 0.11 2007
ecology
Environment- 154 0.08 2005 Human 968 0.08 2001
friendly society
Resource 34 0.08 2004 Sustainable 2647 0.07 2000
consumption development
Industrial structure 57 0.06 2006 Management 2060 0.07 2000
Ecosystem 71 0.06 2002 Agriculture 888 0.06 2000
Recycling 56 0.05 2004 Resource 573 0.05 2000
management
Ecological 309 0.04 2003 Waste 334 0.03 2002
civilization management
Finance 32 0.04 2006 Life cycle 718 0.03 2001
assessment
Environmental 111 0.03 2002 Model 1519 0.02 2000
protection
Resources- 135 0.03 2004 Policy 376 0.02 2000
conserving
society
Closing material 126 0.03 2003 Recycling 965 0.02 2002
cycle
Energy 158 0.02 2007 Climate change 1135 0.02 2004
conservation
Technological 60 0.02 2005 Land use 931 0.02 2001
innovation
Eco-industrial 98 0.02 2002 Environmental 685 0.02 2001
chain monitoring

same consensus, the academic community studies the coordination of economic and
ecological resources. The keywords with the high frequency and centrality domestically
are the following: clean production, eco-industrial park, resource saving, sustainable
development, business management. These statistics are reflected on the 10th Five-Year
Plan of China when circular economy began to develop. Along with these statistics, the
need to construct a resource-saving and environment-friendly society is accentuated, with
emphasis on saving priority and source control as well as in attributing additional
importance to industrial ecology. Paying attention to economic and social comprehensive

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changes is also highlighted. Therefore, scientific research perspective should shift from
macro to micro, that is, from clean production to green consumption, from management to
environmental awareness; scientific research culture and system should conduct holistic
studies. This implication means that the government should vigorously develop a circular
economy from top to bottom. Such development will promote academic research, showing
that scientific research in China is based on actual development and is closely integrated
with national strategic science and technology needs. Ecological civilization is also among
the high frequency keywords but with a relatively low centrality. This result shows that
although ecological civilization has become a focal point in China, research on the topic is
still in the preliminary stage. The topic still lacks in-depth studies to become a core and
hub. The theory and technological innovation in ecological civilization may be expected to
be the main priorities in the design and advocacy of the government for fervency and
effectiveness of research on circular economy.
The keywords with high frequency and centrality internationally are conservation,
system, ecosystem, energy efficiency, environmental protection, industrial ecology. This
result shows that foreign scholars are concerned about the system and its efficiency.
Through comparison of high-frequency and high-centrality keywords between China and
the international community, we find that ‘‘sustainable development’’ shows higher fre-
quency in domestic and foreign research literatures, in addition about industrial ecology.
The common research hotspot shows that sustainable development is an international
consensus and a common goal. Circular economy and industrial ecology development are
important means of achieving harmonious economy, society, and environment for sus-
tainable development.

Research frontier and development trend of international circular economy

By utilizing the surged word probing technique of CiteSpace V, words with high fluctu-
ating frequencies can be detected through keywords. Based on the variation tendency of
word frequency, the frontier areas and developing trends of research on circular economy
can be determined. In CiteSpace V, term type was set to ‘‘burst term’’.The evolution
process of the international circular economy research frontier is shown in Table 4. The
period of time in Table 4 indicates that the frequency of the corresponding keyword is
higher.
According to Table 4, the change in the hotspots of research on circular economy
worldwide can be divided into three stages:
(a) From 2000 to 2007, the terms mainly include cost effectiveness, strategic planning,
mathematical model, and resource allocation. Research has concentrated on the
exploration of fundamental theories of circular economy such as concepts, principles
and the preliminary study of circular economy model. People started to think of how
to shift from the traditional linear to circular economy. The representative was the
‘‘cradle to cradle’’ economy, functional-focused service economy, and resource
productivity. Asia, Europe, and North America present high mutation intensities in
this stage. Germany, Japan, and the United States made great achievements in
practices of circular economy. They revised waste management laws and formulated
a series of regulations for circular economy development. These strategies helped
develop circular economy based on the view of waste recycling and utilization of
renewable resources.

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Table 4 Surged words in the keywords co-occurrence network for research on circular economy worldwide

(b) In 2008–2012, the terms mainly include global warming, energy conservation, and
industry. The research hotspots in this field rapidly expanded into the views of the
industry, energy, and climate and also focused on comprehensive evaluation index
systems other than waste recycling.
(c) In 2013–2016, the terms mainly include water footprint, carbon footprint, energy
management system, and life cycle assessment. Practice also continuously advances.
European countries achieved remarkable progress in areas, such as waste

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management, renewable energy, and zero-emission regional construction. In 2015,

Germany issued a package plan for circular economy development.

Research on circular economy and practice process in China

Circular economy in China currently entered a new era under the framework of ecological
civilization. As such, circular economy in China became an important part of its con-
struction of a well-off society and of realizing the beautiful Chinese dream. Therefore, use
of the CiteSpace V software on high quality literature on the development and practice of
circular economy in China is necessary to provide further insights into the macroscopic
development of circular economy in the country. The use of the software is also necessary
to analyze future development direction. Settings of the CiteSpace V software are
unchanged, as shown in Table 5.
According to literature, along with the measurement and change of research hotspots in
Table 5 and the inductive analysis of selected typical literature, the research progress of
circular economy in China generally presents two distinct phases with 2010 as the
boundary. The two time intervals separated by this node coincide with the period of
vigorously developing circular economy in China during the 11th and 12th Five-Year Plan
periods. The phase change of hot spots in the study is consistent with stage characteristics
of the practice of circular economy development. This result shows that the study of
circular economy is in line with the promotion of development practice by the Chinese
government and that it plays an important supporting role. During the 10th and 11th Five-
Year Plan periods, circular economy rapidly rose to academic research form, presenting a
basic framework and research characteristics to provide scientific support and promote
circular economy and social development. During these periods, economic, social, cultural,
institutional, and technical fields widely discussed the implementation of circular economy
in the 12th Five-Year Plan period. Further strengthening and promotion of circular
economy laid a solid foundation for implementation. Circular economy development was
basically completed during the 10th and 11th Five-Year Plan periods: development goals
were set, circular economy legislation was completed, a circular economy system was
established, and pilot programs were organized in various fields of circular economy.
The 10th Five-Year Plan period is the initial stage of circular economy. We have
merged the two phases of the 10th and the 11th Five-Year Plan periods into the initial stage
of development; the 12th Five-Year Plan is the deepening period. Based on literature
statistics, the comparative analysis of the development practice of China is as follows, as
shown in Fig. 4.

Research on circular economy and practice during the 10th and 11th Five-Year Plan
periods

1. Research hotpots and development during the 10th and 11th Five-Year Plan periods
The 10th Five-Year Plan (2001–2005), were marked with the start of research on circular
economy in China with surged words: sustainable development, cleaner production, eco-
industry park, scientific outlook on development and so on. This stage aimed to confront
increasingly prominent problems of resource shortage and environmental degradation to
explore a new pattern of economic development. In this stage, China actively fulfilled its
responsibility as a big power, implementing the National Agenda 21-White Paper on
China’s Population, the Environment and Development in the 21st Century, and the 2030

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Table 5 Surged words in the co-occurrence network of research on the circular economy in China

Agenda for Sustainable Development. In 2002, China passed the only Cleaner Production
Promotion Law in the world. During this period, China set cleaner production as the key
measure for promoting economic and societal sustainable development, the whole process
of production and life cycle of products as the starting point, thereby conserving resources
and reducing waste generation and pollutant emissions. In 2005, the State Council issued
Several Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Circular Economy and proposed the
guiding ideology, major objectives, key tasks, and policy measures for the development of
circular economy. The Several Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Circular
Economy is the first programmatic document in the history of circular economy devel-
opment in China and is thus a milestone.
During the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006–2010), research on circular economy has con-
centrated on the two-type society (resources-conserving and environment-friendly society),
industrial clusters and eco-city circle. Further diverse methods with quantitative analysis
were applied, such as material flow management, life cycle assessment, index system,
evaluation approach, and input–output analysis, to reflect the intensifying need for tran-
sition from qualitative analysis to quantitative analysis. Low carbon economy was also

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Fig. 4 Comparison chart of research and practice of circular economy in China

proposed, with the study focusing on technology and quantitative research to support the
increasingly in-depth and specific economic development goals and demonstration projects
of the country.
In practice, the 11th Five-Year Plan developed circular economy as a major task of
building a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society. The top-level design and
promotion of the government should be intensified as follows. Since 2006, the state
annually invested immense funds to launch two batches of pilot projects for circular
economy in provinces and municipalities, parks, key industries, and key areas. The gov-
ernment also summarized 60 typical models of circular economy that can be replicated and
popularized (Zhao 2015). In 2009, the State promulgated the Circular Economy Promotion
Law of the People’s Republic of China. Some localities also promulgated promotion
regulations on circular economy, initially forming a system of circular economy laws and
regulations consisting of state laws, administrative regulations, departmental rules, and
local laws and regulations.
2. Representative research results

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The representative research (2000–2010) can be divided into the following types:
(a) Research on the construction of new circular economy theories. Cui and Zhu (2003)
proposed theory and framework of a recycling-oriented society and emphasized that
the construction of a recycling-oriented society needs to follow the principles of
ecology. Moreover, the core content of circular economy is the concept of circular
economy through the whole social economic system, into the overall social and
economic development planning and policies, laws, system, culture, and public
ideology, and behavior on all levels to realize the omnidirectional and multi-level
social development mode change. Wang (2003) believed that a circular economy is
a kind of compound eco-economy with integrated, coordinated, cyclical, and self-
generated functions that operates according to the principles of ecological principles
and system-engineering methods. Eco-industry is a type of network-based,
evolutionary, complex, and eco-harmonious industry system organized according
to the laws of circular economy and conforms to the carrying capacity of the
ecosystem with highly efficient metabolic processes in its life cycle. The essence of
industrial eco-transformation is to transform the traditional product-based economy
into function-based economy, transform the environmental input into the ecological
output, promote the coordinated development of ecological and economic assets,
ecological and production infrastructures, and ecological and social service
functions. Zuo (2005) believed that the social production and reproduction
paradigms and all socio-economic activities are guided by ecological laws. It
focuses on the promotion of efficient resource utilization and recycling. The basic
principle of circular economy is ‘‘reduce, reuse, and recycle’’, which is built on a
kind of economic mode with low consumption, low emissions, and high efficiency.
The essence of this economy mode is to achieve maximum development benefits
from the least resource consumption and the lowest environmental costs as far as
possible. Qi (2005) believed that the development of circular economy involves
contradictions in deep level, such as economic growth, employment and the
environment, and economical rationality of pollution management. Questions with
regard to the relationship between economic and resource efficiency in circular
economy mode, correlation between circular economy and social fairness, problem
of ethical issues about environment and circular economy should be answered. The
main problem in the development process of circular economy in China is that many
of company are too small to implement strategies of circular economy under the
premise of economic rationality and relevant economic mechanisms and policy
systems that adapt the construction of regional eco-industrial networks are not yet
formed. Institutional innovation should be promoted to meet the need for circular
economy development. Li et al. (2008) analyzed the evolution of environmental
management policy and the development of circular economy in China since the
1970s, combined theory of ecological modernization, summarized enlightenment for
China’s serialization ecological modernization, and suggested to build an environ-
ment-friendly and resource-conserving society.
(b) Research on ecological efficiency, mechanism, index system, and industrial ecology.
Theoretical and empirical studies on circular economy were deployed on the basis of
clean production, decoupling theory, Kuznets curve, ecological footprint, life cycle
analysis, data envelopment analysis, material flow management, and relevant
assessing methods, as well as to urban mining theory, green GDP, and environ-
mental responsibility of enterprises. Bai et al. (2003) assessed regional sustainable

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development capabilities through the analysis of ecological footprint and carrying

capacity of provinces in China. Duan (2004) considered that the relationship
between economic development and resource consumption in the process of
industrial modernization shows rising total amount with fluctuations, that is, the
‘‘rising multimodal theory’’. China should formulate circular economic development
plan that provides policy and legal guarantees for the circular economy. Moreover,
research on the technical system of circular economy should be strengthened by
focusing on the control of pollutants and the recycling of scarce resources. He
contrasted the major differences in the material metabolism between urban systems
and natural ecosystems. A control theory model of urban material metabolism was
established through a structural classification study on the major factors and the
interrelationships involved in urban material metabolism. Li et al. (2004) proposed a
corporate evaluation index system for circular economy. Tian and Chen (2007)
investigated the construction and optimization of the green supply chain of an
enterprise. Dong et al. (2007) emphasized that the economic transformation of
China’s resource-based cities faces a series of problems, including traditional
primary resource-reliant industry structure and extensive-type economy, low level of
technology and benefits, huge pressure on employment and social security, resource
exhaustion, serious environmental pollution and ecological damages, unsound
system mechanism, and weak capability for innovation. The strategic innovation of
resource-based cities in economic transformation includes the innovation of
development goals of economy, society, and coordinated development of environ-
ment and economy; the strategic innovation of circular economy, such as industrial
structure optimization and diversification; and the construction of ecological
industry system. Science and technology innovation strategy includes the strategy of
high technology, eco city, and mechanism and system innovation. Feng et al. (2008)
proposed the urban circular economy evaluation index system based on three types
of secondary indicators: economic, green, and human development indexes. The
index system is based on four major systems, namely, industry, urban infrastructure,
residential environment, and social consumption. Tong et al. (2008) described the
recycle path of circular economy in macroeconomic operation by using input–output
analysis tools. They created a cyclic economy input–output table and constructed the
analysis model. Wu (2009) established science systems and methods for industrial
cluster ecological development and constructed an evaluation index system of
industrial clusters consistent with the characteristics of circular economy based on
the concept of circular economy. Fei and Yu (2009) focused on the relationship
between industrial agglomeration and circular economy. Through empirical analysis
of the statuses and trends of China’s petrochemical industrial agglomeration, they
emphasized that industrial agglomeration provides the material and spatial
conditions for industrial eco symbiosis. The circular economy business model,
including the investment promotion model, also supports the improvement of
industrial eco-quality. On the one hand, the state should provide conditions to
promote industrial agglomeration; on the other hand, it should support regulations
and policy incentives. Liang et al. (2009) conducted life cycle analysis of the
agricultural industry and established an environmental impact checklist for wheat
production. Shi and Zhou (2010) proposed a target–structure–response three-level
evaluation index system based on the connotation of the development of circular
economy. A case study was conducted on the pilot cities of circular economy in
China. The results are shown during the 11th Five-Year Plan period. Economic

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growth is significantly decoupled from resource input and environmental emissions.

It is shifting from a resource-dependent to a resource-efficient model. Wang (2010)
used decoupling theory to analyze the relationship between economic growth and
energy consumption in China since 1990 and considered that China is entering a
phase of relative decoupling.
(c) Research on the strategies of national development under the vision of circular
economy. Zhu et al. (2005) introduced the concept of reducing the weight of
economic development based on China’s national conditions and used ecological
efficiency to reveal the essence of dematerialization in circular economy. The
scenario analysis of ecological efficiency emphasized that China’s circular economy
development model C, that is, a 1.5 to two fold development strategy of eco-
efficiency allows China’s GDP to adjust after 15–20 years of economic growth,
eventually achieving the relative dematerialization stage. The overall development
model and framework of the circular economy laid a good foundation for the
theoretical research and practice of China’s circular development.
This phase of academic research on the circular economy in China was mainly about
the introduction of the concept of foreign circular economy. Furthermore, it is
extended to China’s national conditions in terms of systems, policies, laws, and
planning goals and addressed the establishment of ecological efficiency and circular
economy evaluation system. The ecological efficiency and environmental impact of
the region and industry are analyzed using material metabolism, life cycle, and
ecological footprint.

Research hotpots and practice during the 12th Five-Year Plan period

After the circular economy was upgraded to its strategic position, the State clearly defined
and refined its strategic objectives and development plan, formulated a series of national
and local plans, and implemented a series of major projects, reaching 10, 000 projects in
total. Recycling economy was studied in-depth in various industries and fields, and cross-
integration of various fields was gradually enhanced. During this period, which is filled
with theoretical innovation and guidance under technology, institutional mechanisms, and
market innovations are important for the further sublimation of circular economy to
ecological civilization. Part provides scientific support.
1. Research hotspots and development during the 12th Five-Year Plan period
During the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011–2015), research has focused mainly on low carbon
economy, renewable resources, ecological civilization, new-type urbanization, green
development. ecological efficiency This phenomenon reflects the direction of the national
strategy of China as well as its support and plan for the development of circular economy
during the 12th Five-Year Plan as follows.
(a) In this period, resource output rate was proposed as an important evaluation index of
circular economy, and the 15% increase target in resource output rate at the end of the
12th Five-Year Plan was set. In addition, the 10, 100, and 1000 Circular Economy
Demonstration Projects, Cities, and Enterprises, respectively, were also implemented.
These efforts involved the comprehensive utilization of resources, recycling transformation
in industrial parks, manufacturing and industrialization, recovery system of renewable
resources, urban mineral, one hundred demonstration cities with circular economy, and
cultivation of 1000 demonstration enterprises and industrial parks with circular economy.

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(b) In 2012, the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China referred to the
status and role of circular economy as a new strategic point and initially established a
resource recycling system as one of the goals for holistically building a well-off society by
2020. The system requires that the economic development mode be transformed through
saving resources and circular economy to promote green development, recycling, and low-
carbon development, as well as accelerate the establishment of an ecological civilization.
(c) In 2013, the first special plan for a national circular economy, the ‘‘Development
Strategy and Immediate Action Plan on Circular Economy,’’ was introduced. This plan
clarified the general idea, major objectives, key tasks, and safeguards for the development
of circular economy in the 12th Five-Year Plan. All regions formulated the plan for the
development of recycling economy in their respective regions, and the relevant depart-
ments successively issued plans for the development of circular economy in key areas.
From 2014 to 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the annual
promotion plan for circular economy. (d) In May 2015, the State Council of the People’s
Republic of China issued ‘‘Opinions on Accelerating Ecological Civilization Construc-
tion’’ and strengthened adherence to green circle and low carbon development for basic
ecological civilization construction. Circular economy development was also mentioned at
an unprecedented strategic height.
2. Representative research results
Macroscopic theories of circular economy were further advanced during the 12th Five-
Year Plan as follows.
(a) Innovation in circular economy is evident in diverse aspects, such as thoughts,
learning, values, policy institution, industrial ecology, industrial clusters, and supply
chain. Zhu (2012), Zhu and Zhu (2013) proposed to focus on theoretical innovation
combined with policy reconstruction, green technology innovation, and the subject–
object–process circular economy implementation model and presented the macro-
strategy of green development under the superposition of the four phases of China’s
development constraints. The theoretical study of circular economy should be
upgraded from 1.0 to 2.0, and the circular economy should go from the 3R principle
of general significance to the three types of cycles with green development meaning:
waste, product, service, or asset recycling. In the context of ecological civilization,
deepening the theoretical study of circular economy and emphasizing the theoretical
significance of circular economy from the perspectives of ecological scale, social
equity, and economic efficiency are necessary. Duan (2012) believed that the
fundamental driving force for the development of circular economy comes from the
innovation of the driving mechanism of economic interests. Changes in production
methods and lifestyles essentially change the relations of interest. The construction
of the dynamic mechanism of China’s circular economy should be based on the
premise that public ownership is the main body and the government is the leading
one. Surrounding interest mechanism, property rights, price, fiscal, and administra-
tive incentives should be combined to activate the initiative of market players in
developing circular economy. The practice of circular economy is limited because of
the lag in theoretical research, that is, it does not solve the fundamental problem of
the development of circular economy, which is its dynamic mechanism. Wang and
Feng (2012) proposed that the development of circular economy must be driven by
innovation. The principle of constructing circular economic innovation evaluation
indicators and an evaluation system that covers 9 and 52 first- and second-level

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indicators were proposed, and an indicator scoring standard was set on the basis of
the current status of China’s circular economy development and innovation. Yuan
(2012) adopted theoretical analysis and empirical research methods under the
framework of economics by taking the Chinese steel industry as an example in a
secondary DEA analysis of the data from 1989 to 2009. The input and output
efficiency of technological elements for circular economy are investigated based on
the economic discussion of the relationship between technological innovation and
circular economy. The study finds that the continuous increase of the investment in
science and technology can improve the level of circular economy development to a
certain extent. However, the circular economy efficiency curve is repetitive due to
the constraint of institutional environment and the time lag of technical input and
output. Wang et al. (2013) proposed the synergistic effect of circular economy.
Measures related to circular economy result in synergies among the subsystems of
the socio-economic system through the interaction and influence of material, energy,
and information flows. This effect affects the system’s resources, values, and
environmental efficiency and has the connotations of natural science, economics,
and ecology. The synergy of circular economy is reflected in self-organization and
other organizations according to the degree of self-organization of the market, the
stage of economic development, and the level of technology and economy. Lu and
Chen (2014) summarized several directions to deepen research on circular economy
theory on the following: formation mechanism of waste resource, waste of resources
caused by frequent trade of similar products and its governance, resource waste
caused by overproduction and over-consumption and its governance, resource utility
metrics, mathematical expressions, and institutional designs. Wu and Duan (2014)
combined the concepts of reaction, catalytic, and hyper cycles in super-cycle theory
and presented the conceptual model, connotation features, system structure, and
operation principles of the super-cyclic economy from the three aspects of economic
internal, economical intermediate, and economic hypercyclicity circulations. Three
major methods to implement the ‘‘clean production of enterprises, the establishment
of a hyper-cyclical economic park, and the regional ultra-cyclical economic park
network’’ were proposed. Zhu and Liu (2013) explored the laws and efficiency of
circular economy policy diffusion in the top-down approach of Chinese government
departments based on policy diffusion theory. The government proposes innovation
strategies in the field of cognitive diffusion on circular economy through a
questionnaire survey provided by provincial government staff. Zhang (2017) applied
the principle of hyper cycle economy to an expanded forest–paper system (EFPS). A
series of structural models for EFPS hypercycle economy are investigated by means
of layer-by-layer expansion in the logical order of resources chain, eco-chain, and
value chain (three chains or 3C) by analyzing the development and the bottlenecks
of the Chinese paper industry and its relationship with forestry and the natural
environment. Geng et al. (2012, 2013) and Ellia et al. (2017) proposed the
monitoring reference framework for the implementation process of circular
economy strategy. Pialot et al. (2017) integrated the three bottom-line principles
of sustainable development with microscopic projects to promote value innovation
and to supply innovation in circular economy for enterprises. Such integration was
also accomplished to promote the synergy of industrial ecologicalization and urban
development and the amalgamation of industrial design, regional planning, and
social innovation.

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(b) The second innovation involves further advancement and refinement of the
assessing system, models, and methods of circular economy. In this stage, studies
were intensified for fusion and integration with the theoretical system of other
professional fields, such as:
Qian et al. (2011) investigated the early warning model for the development of
circular economy and presented the early warning index system, measure model,
and measure forecast model for the development of circular economy. Dong
(2014) proposed a new circular economy comprehensive evaluation method based
on multi-index decision theory, which included the process of index combination
weighting and index information aggregation. The evaluation results of this
method were more reasonable than that of other existing methods. Zheng et al.
(2014) focused on the coordinated development of circular economy in China’s
high-energy consuming industrial clusters. An evaluation model for the coordi-
nated development of circular economy in high-energy consuming industrial
clusters composed of economic and environmental subsystems was constructed on
the basis of the synergetic order parameters. An application analysis of the
evaluation of the coordinative degree of recycling economy development in six of
China’s high-energy consuming industries and their industrial clusters during
2006–2011. Wang and Xiao (2014), Chen and Zhou (2014), Wang et al. (2016),
and Zhang (2016a) utilized ecological footprint, life cycle analysis, material flow
analysis, environmental performance, and policy atlas to proceed with quantitative
analysis and comparative study. Zhu (2016) used the principal component and
DEA method to measure the circular economy efficiency of cement companies
based on the material flow–value flow analysis paradigm. Qi et al. (2016)
investigated the systematic evolution of industrial parks’ cyclical reforms. A
model based on a complex network system was used to evaluate the heterogeneity
and relevance of industrial eco-industrial networks in industrial parks to improve
the systemic shortage of the original circular economy evaluation index system.
Zhang (2016b) used the data envelopment model to investigate the spatial
distribution, trends, and differences in the efficiency of developing circular
economy in various provinces of China. Dong et al. (2016) and Wu et al. (2017)
applied synergism and systematic dynamics to examine the synergic development
and the regulation and control of circular economy for enterprises.
In summary, gaps in the study of China’s circular economy still exist: The theoretical
system of circular economy should be integrated as a whole. No in-depth study on the
issues of circular economy and social fairness, the ethics of circular economy, and the
relationship among environmental ethics exists. For coordination theory of circular
economy, circular economy policy measures the research mechanism and model of the
synergy among the subsystems of the social economic system through the interaction and
influence of material, energy, and information flows. The circular economy business model
research as the core dynamic mechanism for the development of circular economy is
limited to shallow research. This mechanism does not comprehensively explore the the-
oretical mechanism level and lacked the open mechanism to solve development con-
straints. Systematic research on the two-way function of industrial agglomeration’s
ecological guidance and industrial symbiosis driving forces are lacking and revealing. The
boundaries, concepts, principles, and systems of industrial ecology theory need to be
investigated and improved thoroughly. The internal laws of government public policies and

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market mechanisms for the development of circular economy still require in-depth
research.

Achievement of the practice

China remarkably progressed in resource recycling, industrial system manufacturing, and

in exploring the commercialization of circular economy since the 11th and 12th Five-Year
Plan periods. During the 10th Five-Year Plan period, ‘‘cleaner production promotion law’’
and ‘‘several opinions on accelerating the development of circular economy’’ has become
hot topics in academic circles. These topics urged the industry to promote clean production
voluntarily. Provinces and cities began to formulate circular economy plans. During the
11th Five-Year Plan period, the Chinese government invested RMB 3 billion annually in
pilot projects for the circular economy in regions, eco-industrial parks, key enterprises, and
recycling industries (renewable resource recycling industries). The ‘‘circular economy
promotion law of the People’s Republic of China’’ and ‘‘the state council of the People’s
Republic of China promulgated the regulations on the administration of recycling waste
electrical and electronic products’’ also promoted the development of electronic waste
recycling industry and circular economy pilot projects in various fields. During the 12th
Five-Year Plan period, the state organized a special fund to support 10, 100, and 1000
circular economy demonstration projects, namely, supporting 10 demonstration projects,
such as comprehensive utilization of resources, recycling of industrial parks, industrial-
ization of remanufacturing, recycling system for renewable resources, and urban minerals;
creating 100 circular economy demonstration cities, such as Suzhou and Guangzhou; and
cultivating 1000 circular economy demonstration enterprises and industrial parks and other
key circular economy projects. The state cultivates approximately 30,000 enterprises
engaged in resource recycling. At present, circular economy is included in the scope of
financial reform support. It plays an important role in alleviating resource constraints,
protecting the ecological environment, adjusting industrial structure, promoting economic
growth, steadily expanding employment, promoting green transformation and develop-
ment, and building an ecological civilization. China’s resource recycling industry grows at
an annual rate of about 12%. Its output value surpassed 1.5 trillion yuan by the end of
2015, accounting for 2.96% of GDP. China’s remanufacturing enterprises have reached
more than 500, is expected to achieve output value of 50–80 billion yuan. China has
invested in the construction of 49 urban mining bases, and in 2016 the total recycling
reached 246 million tons. The implementation of the ‘‘regulations on the administration of
recycling and disposal of waste electric and electronic products’’ and the fund subsidy
policy improved the electronic waste recycling, and the recovery rate of TV, refrigerator,
air conditioner, washing machine and computer rose to 4.3 from 35.9%. Through pilot
project demonstrations, the concept of circular economy was widely disseminated, the
level of technical equipment was significantly improved, and mechanisms were continu-
ously improved to develop the circular economy in all industries, fields, and levels.
According to the report of the National Bureau of Statistics, the index of circular economy
development in 2013 was 137.6%, increasing 37.6 percentage points from 2005. At pre-
sent, circular economy has been included in the scope of financial reform support and it
will play an important role in alleviating resource constraints, protecting the ecological
environment, adjusting industrial structure, promoting economic growth, steadily
expanding employment, promoting green transformation and development, and building an
ecological civilization.

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Conclusion

Scientific research on circular economy is delving into the research and development of
concrete techniques and the construction of methods and system. Theoretical, institution,
technological, and scientific method innovations in circular development with longer span
might soon emerge. Fusion, crossover, and infiltration between inter-disciplines and multi-
industries will then be achieved. For example, theory of circular economy permeates into
the fields of materials, chemistry, engineering, and economic social management to create
green chemistry, ecological materials, circular chemical engineering design, and modifi-
cation of industrial clusters. Research on green and circular technologies would soon be
hotspots.
Based on the concept of circular development, optimization study on multi-factors of
regional system will be an attractive research direction. One example is the study on the
system capacity of circular development for ecological industrial complex, industrial
ecology, ecological industrial clusters, eco-city, and urban clusters.
Thus far, synergy, sharing, and green are the hot words. Circular economy has been
connected with synergistic effects. By integrating theory of synergy and self-organization,
research on self-organization theory of circular development as well as light-materializa-
tion and declining-materialization of economic and social development would be future
research directions under the context of synergy between economics, social management,
and behavior.

Acknowledgements Thanks for everyone who helped write this article. Including thanks to academician Yi
Qian, the part of circular economy development is reference to her speech, thanks to my friend Mr. Yixin
Zhang, provide a great help in the paper content and polish, thanks to associate professor Lei Shi of
Tsinghua University for making valuable suggestions, thanks to the graduate students for their support in
writing the thesis.

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