No new projects: China’s degraded Yangtze River needs protection, not construction, President Xi Jinping says
Environmental rehabilitation declared major focus for the country’s longest waterway but development plans unlikely to be scrapped, analysts say
President Xi Jinping has ruled out new development projects on the embattled Yangtze River in an apparent move to breathe life into the area’s heavily degraded environment.
Observers said Xi’s declaration indicated a strong official desire to protect rivers, but the authorities were not likely to surrender development plans.
During a trip to Chongqing last week, Xi said that after decades of construction, environmental protection and restoration would be a “dominant focus” for the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Authorities along China’s biggest river should “work together for major protection, instead of carrying out major development”, Xi told cadres from 11 provinces along the waterway and some ministers, Xinhua reported.
“The Yangtze River has a unique ecological system. It is an important ecological treasure,” Xi was quoted as saying.
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Until last year, the Yangtze economic belt focused on developing the “golden waterway”, with plans to build more ports to spur industrial upgrades and urbanisation in an area home to 600 million people.
Premier Li Keqiang first aired the Yangtze economic belt concept in his government work report in 2014. But Xi said last week that the priority for now and the future should be environmental restoration.