Ecological protection, hydropower usage urged

President Xi Jinping underlined on Monday the importance of giving priority to environmental protection and green development in exploring the hydropower potential of the Jinsha River in a coordinated and scientific manner.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remark as he sent his congratulations on the beginning of operations on Monday at the first set of power generators at the Wudongde Hydropower Station.

The station spans the Jinsha River in the upper stretches of the Yangtze River and is on the border of Huidong county in Sichuan province and Luquan county in Yunnan province.