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Abstract Anthropogenic emissions of reactive nitrogen (Nr) result in adverse impacts on the ecosystems. Nowhere has that threat been more challenging than in rapidly urbanized China, the world's largest anthropogenic Nr producer. The Nanjing Declaration in 2004 called for global reductions in Nr emissions. To assess China's progress, multisource Nr emissions were evaluated with a quantitative method from 2004 to 2014. The results showed that national Nr emissions had increased with fluctuation over this period, 55–59% of the total Nr emissions were emitted to the atmosphere, and that agricultural production still was the biggest contributor (62–69%). The hotspots were mainly located in the developed and coastal regions that also have high population densities. Urbanization was associated with overall decreases in agricultural Nr emission and increases in industrial and residential Nr emissions. The overall increase in residential Nr emission per capita played a large role in driving the growth of national Nr emission. Continuing urbanization poses a significant challenge to future Nr mitigation for ecosystem sustainability and a range of strategies, covering improvement of N-use efficiency, slowdown of Western China's urbanization, and promotion of low N intensive lifestyle, are proposed that can promote Chinese low-nitrogen development. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Anthropogenic Nr emissions from China have increased with fluctuation since Nanjing Declaration. • Urbanization has positive and negative two-way effects on Chinese Nr emissions. • Continuing urbanization poses a significant challenge to future Nr mitigation. • Regional Nr emissions possess mitigation potentials with the promotions of low-N strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]