The central government is giving top priority to improving the ecological environment of the Yangtze River, and it has stressed that the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt should be ecology oriented.

According to the results of an environmental audit last month, the provinces and municipalities along the Yangtze River Economic Belt have seen some improvement in pollution control and ecological quality. However, the environmental challenges remain serious, as shown by the fact that 13,013 people were arrested for impairing environmental resources and there were 47,350 convictions for environmental law violations from January 2015 to June, 2018, which shows the authorities' determination to protect the Yangtze River.

Over the past few years overdevelopment along the Yangtze has caused serious environmental damage due to wastewater pollution, illegal docks and illegal sand mining.

The traditional development idea of "pollution first, treatment later" has been abandoned in recent years in favor of development that stresses environmental protection and resources management, and the optimization of the industrial structure. And statistics show that the average GDP growth of the 11 provincial level regions along the Yangtze River is not lower than the national average, which in turn shows ecological protection does not need to undermine economic development.