Xi's inspection trips show key points of China's high-quality development

ECOLOGICAL CONSERVATION

At a national conference on ecological and environmental protection last month, Xi underscored the significance of supporting high-quality development with a high-quality ecological environment. He stressed the need to accelerate the advancement of modernization featuring harmony between humanity and nature.

Xi is deeply concerned about the ecological conservation and protection of cultural relics in the Yellow River Basin.

During his visits to the provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi in May, Xi said that all provinces and regions within the Yellow River Basin must take the protection of the Yellow River Basin's ecology as the baseline in planning development and promoting high-quality development, and must refrain from doing things that are not conducive to the ecological protection of the Yellow River Basin.

While inspecting the country's largest mangrove nature reserve in Guangdong, Xi referred to mangrove forests as national treasures and said they should be protected with as much care as people take to protect their own eyes.

In Inner Mongolia, Xi visited an afforestation project site and called for continuous efforts to prevent and control desertification, which he described as a long-term historic mission.

Presently, China has the world's largest planted forest area, with its forest coverage rate more than doubling from 12 percent in the early 1980s to 24.02 percent last year.

"We should continue to pursue green development, make unremitting efforts across generations to build a beautiful China, and contribute to the preservation of our global village," Xi has said.