Title: Painting the Beautiful China Picture Together — Listening to Their Ecological and Environmental Stories
Blue skies, white clouds, clear water, and green shores are the beautiful aspirations in everyone’s heart. On May 20, the State Council Information Office held a press conference themed “Strivers on the New Journey,” where five representatives shared their ecological and environmental protection stories around the topic “Adhering to Environmental Protection for the People, Painting a Beautiful China Together.”
From controlling air pollution from industrial enterprises to addressing the nuisance of cooking fumes near people’s homes, these are all concerns of He Shuangjiang, head of the Air Environmental Protection Section of the Chongqing Fuling District Ecology and Environment Bureau. He presented the achievements of Chongqing’s air pollution prevention and control: in 2025, PM2.5 concentration dropped to 31 micrograms per cubic meter, the best level since monitoring records began.
Fuling District, a major industrial area in Chongqing, has seen significant improvement in air quality in recent years. Through practice, He Shuangjiang gradually developed a “six ones” strategy for air management: tightening a “chain” of responsibility, drawing a “map” of operations, building a “network” of supervision, coordinating a “chessboard” of pollution control, establishing a “ledger” of issues, and compiling a “manual” for emergencies.
In He Shuangjiang’s view, this year’s newly issued ambient air quality standards set a higher benchmark for air pollution control. The work of air management has no endpoint; only through solid work can blue skies be achieved, and continued efforts are necessary.
When people think of the coking industry, they often imagine scenes of towering chimneys and thick smoke. However, Xie Hongsong, general manager of Shanxi Yaxin New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., said that his company has resolved to pursue green development, gradually upgrading from a single coal-coking chemical enterprise to a new type of company integrating energy chemicals, fine chemicals, power batteries, and resource recycling.
Ultra-low emission transformations require significant investment from companies. “In the short term, it’s a cost, but in the long run, these investments bring tangible and sustainable returns,” Xie Hongsong said. Increasing environmental investment can effectively eliminate risks such as production restrictions and shutdowns, ensuring stable long-term production. Benchmark environmental protection enterprises can also fully enjoy policy and market dividends.
He stated that investing in green industries means investing in the future, and it is essential to firmly pursue a path of green, low-carbon, and high-quality development.
To protect the country’s clear waters and green mountains, ecological remote sensing plays an irreplaceable role. Hou Peng, director of the Natural Ecology Remote Sensing Department at the Satellite Environment Application Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, introduced that remote sensing has advantages such as “standing high, seeing far, and covering large observation areas,” solving problems that traditional monitoring methods cannot “see.”
He gave an example: through remote sensing, it was found that the boundary of the vegetation cover area in the Yellow River Basin, known as the “green line,” has extended about 300 kilometers from southeast to northwest. Remote sensing can also monitor the path, impact range, and dust concentration of each sandstorm event.
Hou Peng said that remote sensing and ground monitoring should complement each other, collaborate, and deeply integrate to improve the digital and intelligent modernization level of ecological and environmental monitoring, providing more solid data support and assurance for ecological environmental protection and the construction of a beautiful China.
How can rivers near people’s homes be restored to clear water and green shores?
“In watershed ecological and environmental supervision, we always focus on solving ecological and environmental problems close to the people,” said Li Minxia, deputy director of the Supervision and Management Division of the Taihu Basin and East China Sea Ecological and Environmental Supervision and Management Bureau of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. She explained that they conducted special inspections in the upper reaches of Taihu Lake, focusing on prominent water ecological and environmental issues that people have strongly complained about, effectively resolving a number of problems such as black and odorous water bodies and direct sewage discharge that were urgent concerns for the people.
Taihu Lake, known as the “Pearl of the South,” has long suffered from cyanobacteria blooms and is difficult to manage. Li Minxia introduced that in recent years, Taihu Lake management has adhered to simultaneous treatment of water and shores, addressing both symptoms and root causes, combining emission reduction and capacity expansion, and leveraging synergy and technology. The water ecological environment has been continuously improving. In 2024, the water quality of Taihu Lake reached Class III for the first time in 30 years, and has remained stable at Class III for two consecutive years. The comprehensive nutritional status index reached the best level since