On September 18, 2019, General Secretary Xi Jinping at the symposium on ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin clearly stated that the protection of the Yellow River is an important economic zone in China, with a number of agricultural products being distributed within the watershed, coal, oil, natural gas and other energy resources enrichment. At present, the ecological environment of the Yellow River Basin remains fragile and severely constrains the sustainable development of the economy and society along the Huang River.
I. Importance of Yellow River Basin Ecological Conservation and High Quality Development
Promoting regional coordination
"Regional coordinated development is the key support for promoting high-quality development, is an intrinsic requirement to achieve common affluence and is an important element in advancing Chinese-style modernization."[1] Since the 18th Congress of the Party, with Comrade Xi Jinping as its core, the party central attaches great importance to regional coordinated development efforts.
(ii) Ensure national food security
The Yellow River Basin is an important food-producing region in China, with Ningxia Plains, Hetu Plains and North China Plains as the main agricultural areas. Food production accounts for about one-third of the country's total output. The Party's 20th report clearly states that "the foundation of food security is comprehensively strengthened, fully implement the Party's political responsibility for food security, and firmly uphold the 1.8 billion mu of arable land red line".
3) Promote ecological civilization
The ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin is one of the important elements in the construction of ecological civilization. Xi Jinping pointed out: "Ecological prosperity leads to civilization, ecological decay leads to civilization decline. Ecological environment is the foundation of human survival and development, and ecological environmental change directly affects the evolution of civilization."[3]
(D) Expanding Poverty Reduction Outcomes
At the end of 2020, China's fight against poverty achieved a comprehensive victory, and China's goal to fully build a small and well-being society was reached on schedule. However, victory in the fight against poverty does not mean the end of the battle, let alone once and for all, must ensure that no large scale return to poverty.
II. The real dilemma of ecological protection and high-quality development
(a) Vulnerable ecological environment, frequent natural disasters
The ecological environment of the Yellow River Basin is extremely fragile and natural disasters are frequent. On the one hand, due to various impacts such as climate, geological conditions and human activities, the ecosystem and the natural environment of the Yellow River Basin have been severely damaged, forest degradation, desertification, soil loss and other problems, ecosystem imbalances, floods and other natural disasters, which have caused serious impact on local people's productive lives.
(ii) Water scarcity, use of rough
The annual runoff of the Yellow River accounts for only 2% of the country's total water resources, less than 7% of the Yangtze River, but it must provide irrigation, industrial production and daily water to 15% of the country's arable land and 12% of the population. The per capita share is only 27% of the national average. At the same time, most of the provinces in the Yellow River Basin have a relatively low level of economic development, the mode of economic development is more coarse, high energy consumption and high pollution traditional industrial industries are relatively dense, untreated industrial wastewater is directly drained into the river, severely polluting the water resources within the Yellow River Basin, causing further shortages of water resources.
(c) large economic differences and uneven regional development
At present, the economic and social development of the upper, middle and lower watersheds of the Yellow River presents an imbalanced feature. It is located in the northwest region of the upper river basin, and its overall economic and social development level is significantly behind the central and eastern regions of the Yellow River. According to economic statistics in 2022, Qinghai Province, Gansu Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region GDP is 361.01 billion yuan, 1120.16 billion yuan, 506.96 billion yuan, midstream Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Shaanxi Province and Shanxi Province GDP is 2315.86 billion yuan, 3277.27 billion yuan, 2564.26 billion yuan, Henan Province and Shandong Province GDP are 613.451 billion yuan, 874.35.1 billion yuan respectively. Shandong Province with the highest GDP value is 24.22 times that of the lowest Qinghai Province.
(4) Lack of innovation vitality, inadequate quality development
The Yellow River Basin is China's three energy bases, namely hydropower base upstream, coal base in the midstream and oil base downstream. In addition, there are abundant minerals and natural gas resources, which provide a solid foundation for the production and development of traditional industrial industries.
Yellow River Basin Ecological Protection and High-Quality Development
(a) Disaster prevention and reduction
The first is to improve drought prevention and mitigation infrastructure, strengthen the monitoring, early warning and forecasting system of agricultural disasters, maximize the stability of agricultural production in the Yellow River Basin; the second is to retire grass, retreat to the lake, seal mountain planting forest, eliminate deforestation, dig insufficiency, theft of stone, implement ecological restoration, improve vegetation cover of the whole area to enhance natural saving and water connotation capacity.
(B) Pollution control, promote water conservation
On the one hand, strictly regulates enterprise sewage discharge standards, optimizes sewage treatment technology, and implements technical evaluation of high pollution and high emission industries. At the same time, actively promote the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure, guide industrial industry to green, ecological sustainable development path, let green cycle energy-saving industry become an important force for guiding economic development. At the same time, change the way agriculture consumes water resources, with technology as support, green-oriented and quality as the goal to accelerate the connotation and intensive development of agricultural production.
(c) Planning for Regional Balanced Development
On the one hand, the ecological environment in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Valley differs greatly, according to the ecological conditions, resource distribution and economic level of the Yellow River Basin. The upstream region focuses on strengthening ecological protection and developing green energy industries. On the other hand, promote balanced and coordinated development along Huang Jiu Province, adhere to complicity and benefit sharing, and form a rich geographically distinctive industrial structure according to local conditions.
(D) Innovation Lead, Promote High Quality Development of Yellow River Basin
