Abstract: China is the country with the greatest increase in forest resources in the world, yet its forest quality remains relatively low. Given that China’s forests are primarily distributed across mountainous and hilly terrains, genetic improvement through forest tree breeding plays a prominent role in promoting national forest quality enhancement. Developing improved varieties not only meets the demands of intensive plantation forestry and maximize timber yield, but also achieves the rehabilitation and renewal of genetically degraded secondary and overcut forests, thereby improving the genetic quality of natural forest stands of important tree species accounting for a larger proportion of the distribution area. Constructing breeding populations and driving the breeding cycle of mating, genetic testing, and selection, based on recurrent selection theory is an effective way to fully utilize the naturally occurring positive allelic variations of genes related to target traits. It also serves as the core and foundation of forest tree breeding. By contrast, unconventional breeding, especially novel biotechnological breeding, represents the innovation and development of forest tree breeding. According to reproductive mode and utilization pathway, seed production of improved varieties is divided into seed orchard production and clonal seed production. Among these, the utilization of specific combining ability should be considered in parental deployment to ensure maximum utilization of both additive and non-additive genetic effects of retained superior trees after natural thinning or artificial thinning when the seed orchard production is conducted. However, to prevent losses due to aging or degradation of propagation materials, rejuvenation and maintenance of juvenility should be emphasized during clonal seed production. When improved varieties are used for the rehabilitation or renewal of multiple-use natural forests dominated by secondary and overcut forests, a certain number of seeds with inferior genetic quality should be mixed into the seeds produced by seed orchards with elite parents, to ensure the maintenance of genetic basis for natural thinning and renewal, as well as fully utilization of the genetic gains from the superior seeds. In contrast, superior clones, family seeds or seeds from elite-parent seed orchards should be employed for intensive commercial plantations to enhance timber and other forest product yields and economic value. It is imperative to establish a national mechanism for forest management, particularly for the deployment of improved seeds in multiple-use forest rehabilitation and renewal. This mechanism should ensure that the important tree species are bred according to the breeding zones, and that seed production and utilization of improved varieties follow the seed zones, thereby fundamentally promoting the improvement of national forest quality.