Governing the future through ‘ecological civilization’: anticipatory politics and China’s Great Yangtze River Protection Programme

China has endorsed the idea of ‘ecological civilization’ for over a decade. How has the Chinese making of the ecological civilization imaginary informed and been affected by on-ground practices? Inspired by insights into anticipatory politics, this study disentangles an officially intended ecological civilization pilot—the ‘Great Yangtze River Protection Programme’ (GYRPP)—to examine the interplay of China’s ecological civilization imaginary, specific policies, and on-ground practices of environmental governance. Informed by fieldwork and documents of GYRPP, this study argues, first, the Chinese state has constructed the ecological civilization imaginary through rendering a concerted future of environmental protection and socio-economic development, which inherently strengthens the regime’s legitimacy. Second, the ecological civilization imaginary has informed a set of policies and been used to coordinate specific local practices. Finally, people, institutions, and other resources are mobilized to serve multiple but sometimes conflicting goals, which in turn reconstitutes the ecological civilization imaginary.