President sets out major tasks to protect area's environment

President Xi Jinping has called for concrete and sustained efforts to make marked achievements in ecological conservation and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period in order to allow China's "Mother River" to benefit the nation forever.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remark on Friday in Jinan, Shandong province, while chairing a symposium on advancing the ecological conservation and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.

The symposium was also attended by Vice-Premier Han Zheng and senior officials from the provinces and autonomous regions in the Yellow River Basin, as well as those from related ministries under the State Council.

During the meeting, Xi commended the progress made in addressing the challenges in the Yellow River Basin in ecological conservation and high-quality development in recent years, and stressed that some prominent problems remain in related work.

He called for focusing on the problems, faithfully implementing the national strategy of promoting ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, and firmly pursuing the green development path.

Xi stressed balancing the relationship between ecological conservation and economic development, and called for efforts to coordinate development and security.

He urged that greater importance should be given to risks in terms of water security, and called for efforts to comprehensively raise the capacity for disaster prevention and control in order to protect people's lives and ensure their safety.

Efforts should be made to firmly pursue the green and low-carbon development path in the basin, Xi said. He called for measures to reduce energy consumption, strictly restrict energy-intensive projects and strive to readjust the energy production structure.

Xi underlined the need to ensure the stability of coal and power supplies to guarantee socioeconomic activity.

Noting that the 14th Five-Year Plan period is key to the ecological conservation and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, Xi urged concrete efforts to step up infrastructure construction to defend against natural disasters including major floods, ensure efficient water use and promote ecological protection with an emphasis on prevention and control of water loss and soil erosion, as well as desertification in some areas.

Solid steps must be taken to ensure high-quality development in the basin through promoting innovation and creativity and improving synergies between industrial chains and innovation chains, Xi said.

He called for a "revolution" in the energy sector to ensure stable energy supply while highlighting the need for the basin to increase connectivity with coastal areas, advance the construction of new infrastructure, which includes 5G networks, industrial internet, inter-city transportation and rail systems, and artificial intelligence, and effectively expand investment.

Before the symposium, Xi inspected a dock of the estuary of the Yellow River in the city of Dongying in Shandong on Wednesday.

He inspected the river's waterways, the ecological environment of wetlands in the river delta, and learned about the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.

It is a critically important matter in State governance to promote the ecological protection of the Yellow River to ensure its stability and security, Xi said during the inspection.

During his two-day stay in Dongying, Xi also visited the Agricultural High-tech Industrial Demonstration Area of the Yellow River Delta, a residential community of relocated residents and a drilling platform in the Shengli Oilfield, a major producer of crude oil and natural gas in the country.

Starting from Qinghai province, the Yellow River runs through nine provinces and autonomous regions before emptying into the Bohai Sea in Shandong. It plays an important role in improving the ecological environment, combating desertification and providing water supply.

The 5,460-kilometer-long waterway feeds about 12 percent of China's population, irrigates some 15 percent of the country's arable land, supports 14 percent of national GDP and supplies water to more than 60 cities.

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012, Xi has visited all of the provinces and autonomous regions in the basin, and has shared his concerns about China's "Mother River". In less than a year from August 2019 to June 2020, he inspected the Yellow River Basin four times.

Earlier this month, 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 legislation to advance ecological conservation and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin.