Qing XIA graduated from the Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University in 1967 and from the Institute of Environmental Sciences, Beijing Normal University in 1981 as one of China's first batch of postgraduates, received the special allowance from the State Council and served as Vice President of Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences in 1992, and retired from the post of Vice President concurrently serving as Chief Engineer of Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences in 2002. He successively won 6 national, provincial and ministerial scientific and technological progress awards as the first principal.

XIA is currently Member of Expert Committee of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, Member of the Advisory Expert Group for Environmental Impact Assessment of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the P.R.C., Deputy Head of the National Standardization Group for Green Product Assessment, Member of the Group for Yangtze River Protection Joint Research Center, and Vice Chair of Technical Committee of Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences. He is also a well-known expert who goes deep into China's ecological environment to solve difficult problems.

In 1981, he developed and established a classified management system for China's water environment functional zones, and presided over the revision of environmental quality standard for surface water in 1988. From 1986, he took part in the establishment of a method for determining the division of basin control units and the contribution rate of input response, and made such method a decision-making and analysis technique in the battle against pollution. From 1989, he worked to explore the technical method of total capacity control for pollutant discharge permits, and developed the "19^th Five-Year Plan" for the National Total Capacity Control, laying the technical foundation for the legislation of pollutant discharge permits in 2015 and for the optimal allocation of total environmental quality. In 1994, he proposed double green certification for green consumption service, initiated the verification of 20-year practice of green product life cycle information announcement, and provided a technical example for China to fully implement green products and enterprise green declaration in 2017. From 1995, he presided over the compilation of pollution control plans for Huaihe River, Taihu Lake, Middle Route of South-to-North Water Diversion and East Route approved by the State Council, which has become a successful example of the full implementation of China's environmental planning. From 2002, he was Member of the National Group on Technical Standardization Strategy, contributing to the standardization of technological achievements and standardization leading industrialization. From 2007, he served as Head of Planning and Guidance Group on National Water Pollution Control of Major River Basins jointly undertaken by Nine Ministries and Commissions, Head of Expert Group for National Offshore Water Pollution Control, and Head of Expert Group for Bohai Sea Environmental Master Plan. He is committed to multi-sectoral cooperation to form a synergy for environmental protection. After 2010, facing to the market, he established a green productivity development platform to integrate water, gas, solid and agricultural non-point source control green recycling technologies, to drive technological innovation in small and medium-sized environmental protection enterprises, to promote subversive technological practice verification, and to support scientific and technological productivity turned into economic benefits. In 2016, in order to realize the "Integration and All-Win of Life, Production and Ecology", he innovated in the field of ecological culture and guided the establishment of the first ecological environment channel (EETV) in China. In 2019, he promoted a new level of integration of ecological culture and green productivity, launched a working committee for green productivity and built a green service platform.