*5.2. Research Recommendations*

The open and quantifiable data of the Yellow River and Non-Yellow River basins in this study are taken from the database of the National Bureau of Statistics of China. The pollution control is carried out through open and objective data. The analysis of China's industrial production efficiency has restrictions on the selection of input- and output-related variables due to the difficulty in obtaining and omission of some data. It is suggested that, in the future, scholars more widely consider relevant data and extend the observation period to make the research results more objective. In addition, this study mainly focuses on the Yellow River and Non-Yellow River basins. It is suggested that different basins such as the Yangtze River and the Pearl River be added as object of discussions in the future to make a longer-cycle cross-basin comparison with each other, to understand China's efforts in industrial production and pollution control, and to provide analysis and basis for SDG-6 and SDG-9 sustainable development goals and policies.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, Y.F. and C.-C.L.; methodology, C.-C.L.; software, C.-Y.Y.; validation, P.-Y.T. and Y.F.; formal analysis, Y.F. and C.-Y.Y.; investigation, Y.F.; resources, Y.F.; data curation, C.-Y.Y. and P.-Y.T.; writing—original draft preparation, C.-Y.Y. and C.-C.L.; writing—review and editing, C.-Y.Y. and C.-C.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the projects as below: Shaanxi Province Innovation Capability Support Program Soft Science Project (2022KRM107), Shaanxi Province Innovation Capability Support Program (2020KJXX-038), National Social Science Foundation of China (21BJY138), Shaanxi Province Innovation Capability Support Program Soft Science Project (2022KRM045), National Natural Science Foundation of China(42171281), Shaanxi Province Science and Technology Innovation Team Project (2021TD-35), And The APC was funded by [Ying Feng].

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
