BEIJING, Oct. 22, 2021 — Deemed China’s "Mother River" and "the cradle of Chinese civilization," the Yellow River basin has seen remarkable improvements in its ecological environment over the last few years as the Chinese government attaches increasing importance to the conservation of China’s second-longest watercourse.

Hailing the Yellow River’s importance as an ecological barrier, an economic zone and a cultural heritage site in China, Chinese President Xi Jinping has reiterated efforts to promote its ecological protection and high-quality development.

On Wednesday, President Xi inspected the estuary of the Yellow River in the city of Dongying, east China’s Shandong Province. He visited a dock at the estuary, an ecological monitoring center and a national-level nature reserve of the Yellow River Delta.

National strategy

"The protection of the Yellow River is critical to the great rejuvenation and sustainable development of the Chinese nation," President Xi said. This explains why China has set the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River basin as a major national strategy.

Starting from Qinghai Province, the Yellow River runs through nine provinces and autonomous regions before emptying itself into the Bohai Sea in Shandong.

As an "ecological corridor," the Yellow River, linking the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Loess Plateau and plains in northern China with severe water scarcity, plays an important role in improving the ecological environment, combating desertification and providing water supply.

The 5,464-kilometer-long waterway feeds about 12 percent of China’s population, irrigates some 15 percent of the arable land, supports 14 percent of the national GDP, and supplies water to more than 60 cities.

Since the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress, the Chinese president has visited all of the basin’s provinces and autonomous regions, sharing his concerns about China’s "Mother River." In less than a year from August 2019 to June 2020 alone, he inspected the Yellow River basin four times.

What are the challenges?

President Xi pointed out difficulties and problems in protecting the Yellow River during his inspection tours, such as the fragile ecological environment, the severe condition of water resources preservation and the need to improve development quality.

According to Xi, the peace of the Yellow River is significant to the stability of China. Although the river has not seen major dangers for many years, Xi has repeatedly told the nation not to relax its vigilance.

The river’s natural and geological conditions have led to frequent flooding since ancient times. Over the past 2,500 years, the Yellow River has broken its dikes more than 1,500 times and made 26 major changes in its course on the lower reaches.

Still, busy industrial activities along the Yellow River once put it on the map as one of the world’s most polluted rivers about 10 years ago, which also resulted in ecological degradation.

Turning a blueprint into practice

To deal with major challenges facing the Yellow River basin, the central government and the local governments along the river have taken a series of measures, exemplifying how a national strategy is transforming from a blueprint into concrete practice while showing China’s determination to purse high-quality development.

Over the past 70 years, China has carried out four large-scale embankment projects, built water conservancy projects, implemented two phases of flood control projects on the lower reaches of the waterway and completed the standard levee construction. By 2019, the accumulated amount of silt and sand into the Yellow River has been reduced by nearly 30 billion tonnes and the sediment of the downstream river has been reduced by 11.2 billion tonnes.

High-quality development of the Yellow River basin started with adjustment and transformation of old industrial cities on the upper stream, developing modern agriculture in major grain-producing regions as well as exploring ways to help the impoverished residents along the riversides.

The country has also built more than 400 wetland nature reserves and national parks in the basin. The Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve, the one President Xi visited on Wednesday, is one of the examples.

The Reserve spanning about 153,000 hectares, with wetlands making up over 70 percent of its total area, is an important wintering and stopover site for migratory birds, including oriental storks, an endangered bird species.

Earlier in October, China released an outline for the Yellow River Basin’s protection and development through 2030, serving as a guide for policymaking and engineering project planning in the basin to address challenges. The country is also speeding up its legislation to advance ecological conservation and high-quality development in the Yellow River basin.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-10-21/Xi-Jinping-inspects-Yellow-River-estuary-14xxlj4xQre/index.html 

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BEIJING, Sept. 16, 2021 — Innovation is often regarded as a pressing task in China, and to facilitate the high-quality development in all-round areas, efforts must be made in this regard.

The message was well emphasized during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s two-day inspection tour of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, where he highlighted about innovation and high-quality development in energy, ecological conservation, education and people’s livelihood.

Innovation, the most pressing task

Sci-tech innovation is the most pressing task and efforts must be accelerated to achieve breakthroughs in key and core technologies, Xi stressed during Monday’s visit to a chemical company to learn about the consumption and development of China’s coal industry.

The coal chemical industry, as a sector with huge potential and good prospects, must be transformed into a high-end, diversified and low-carbon industry, Xi said.

Coal is so far the primary energy consumption in China. Given the situation, Xi said a green and low-carbon development path for the industry is essential to the country’s mission to realize carbon neutrality by 2060. He emphasized the importance of sci-tech innovation to transform the traditional industry into a high-end, diversified and low-carbon one.

Ecological conservation, a balance between humans and nature

The Loess Plateau, once famous for its endless highlands of yellow earth from land erosion on the banks of Yellow River, now has been changing colors with local people’s tireless afforestation efforts.

Among them, Gaoxigou Village is known as a model of ecological conservation. During his trip to the village, Xi affirmed villagers’ efforts while stressing the need to integrate ecological governance with the development of distinctive local businesses.

We must firmly implement the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" and explore a way to attain coordinated development between ecology and economy, and harmony between humans and nature, the Chinese president said.

Education, fundamental to national rejuvenation

Xi gave further explanation to the fundamental role of education when paying a visit to a middle school in Suide on Tuesday.

According to him, the aim of education is to improve people’s overall quality so as to raise the national degree of social civilization, achieve cultural confidence and enhance the national creative vitality.

He stressed the importance of reform in the education sector and called for efforts to cultivate young people who are equipped with moral grounding, intellectual and physical ability, and aesthetic sensibility that can contribute to the society.

Meanwhile, the Chinese president also urged to strengthen the primary role of schools in education, noting that the quality of education should be improved in an all-round way while easing students’ burden of excessive homework and off-campus tutoring.

Folk arts, an invaluable asset of the Chinese nation

While touring an exhibition hall for local intangible cultural heritage in Suide, Xi expressed appreciation for the local efforts to protect and inherit traditional culture.

Noting that Suide is one of the important origins of the Loess Culture, with abundant resources of intangible cultural heritage and traditional folk arts, Xi highlighted the importance of protecting folk arts as they are invaluable assets of the Chinese nation, and are vital to sustaining historical legacy and building a socialist country with great cultural strength.

He called for a creative transformation and development of the traditional culture so as to better link it to modern life to meet people’s ever-growing needs for a better life.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-09-16/China-highlights-innovation-for-high-quality-development-in-Shaanxi-13AdqnXt6Fi/index.html

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