Cities and state departments along the Yangtze River are implementing the concept of "Great Protection of the Yangtze River" in different ways. On February 26th, 2020, the 24th meeting of the 13th the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) passed the Law on the Protection of the Yangtze River in People's Republic of China (PRC), which came into effect on March 30th, 20021,and fundamentally consolidated the institutional guarantee for the great protection of the Yangtze River. This is the first legislation based on integrated watershed management in China, which provides a legal basis for the implementation of integrated watershed management. It provides a complete and systematic legislative innovation and practical reference for the legislative construction of ecological environmental protection in other basins in the future, and has important reference significance for promoting the legislation of the Yellow River Basin and other basins in a timely manner.

Issues of public concern are clearly stipulated in the Law on the Protection of the Yangtze River: for example, it provides for effective control of total phosphorus emission and improvement of urban and rural sewage collection and treatment capacity. Regarding the prohibition and withdrawal of fishing in the Yangtze River basin, the law explicitly prohibits productive fishing in the aquatic biological reserve in the Yangtze River basin; Within the time limit stipulated by the state, the productive fishing of natural fishery resources is completely banned in key waters such as the main stream and important tributaries of the Yangtze River, large Tongjiang lakes and designated areas of the Yangtze River estuary. It is also proposed to strictly control the sand mining area, the total amount of sand mining and the number of sand mining vessels.

Wang Ruihe, director of the Economic Law Office of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) Law Committee, said that the Yangtze River Protection Law has four highlights: doing a top-level design of overall coordination and system guarantee; Adhere to the protection and restoration of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River basin in an overwhelming position; Pay attention to joint efforts to protect and not develop; Adhere to the responsibility orientation and increase punishment. Adhere to the problem-oriented, in view of the key issues such as the Yangtze River fishing ban, shoreline protection and illegal sand mining, supplement and refine the relevant provisions on the basis of existing relevant laws, substantially increase the amount of fines, increase the punishment methods, fill the shortcomings and defects of existing laws, and effectively enhance the authority and enforceability of the legal system.