The issue of environmental quality with natural resource extraction and excessive carbon emissions is often linked to economic growth. Still, the existing literature is ambiguous due to contradictory evidence concerning the nexus of natural resources, green growth, and economic performance. This study tends to provide a clear picture of the said nexus in the case of China from 1990 to 2020. Using advanced time series approaches, this study finds that all the variables are I(1) stationary, and the cointegration association is valid in the long run. Considering the variable's asymmetrical distribution, this study employed the novel method of moment quantile regression (MMQR). The empirical estimate of the study reveals that natural resources (such as forest rents and oil rents) and green growth adversely affect economic performance, which validates the natural resource curse in the country. The influence of green growth and forest rents is significant, but the oil rents are insignificant. However, carbon emissions positively impact the country's economic performance in the long run. The results are robust and more significant after the robustness test of bootstrap quantile regression. Based on the results obtained, this study suggests increasing investment in environmentally friendly resources to reduce natural resource dependence and negative externalities.