BEIJING, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The top Chinese leadership has called for concerted efforts to promote ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River, known as China's "Mother River," which is critical to the great rejuvenation and sustainable development of the Chinese nation.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China 70 years ago, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has led its people to open a new chapter in the cause of controlling the Yellow River, and great changes have taken place in the economic and social development of the Yellow River basin, and in the lives of ordinary people.

At the same time, we should acknowledge that there remain prominent problems in the Yellow River basin. The ecological environment is still fragile and the situation surrounding the protection of water resources is grim.

Since the 1990s, with the onset of floods and silt buildup, new challenges including flow cutoff, water resource contamination and ecological degradation emerged.

To cope with these problems, China put forward a series of new ideas on reshaping the coexistence of man and river, and scaled up its efforts in the Yellow River's ecological protection. These moves were further boosted by China's promotion of the river chief system since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012.

The Yellow River is the cradle of Chinese civilization. For over 3,000 years, generations of people prospered in its river basin, making the region the center of Chinese politics, economy and culture.

For the Chinese people, the Yellow River is more than just a river, it is their root and soul.

With the national strategy of ecological protection and high-quality development, a new chapter of the Yellow River begins, and the river will flow ever on.