stability in many important reactions, [1] especially in some redox reactions, such as CO oxidation, [2] water-gas shift (WGS) reaction, [3] selective catalytic reduction of NO x , [4] oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), [5] and soot combustion. [6,7] It is commonly known that the catalytic reaction takes place at defect sites of these oxide catalysts. [8] However, it is not always found a monotonous relation between the catalytic performance and the concentration of a certain kind of defect sites, such as oxygen vacancies, [9,10] lattice distortion [11] and defect generated Lewis acid/base sites, [12,13] as well as metastable valence states of cations. [14] As discussed by McFarland and Metiu, [15] heterogeneous catalytic reactions are run under steady-state conditions instead of at equilibrium. It is difficult to accurately describe the catalytic performance of oxide catalysts using the property parameters of as-prepared catalysts, which are more likely to be in thermodynamic equilibrium during the preparation process. For example, according to many reports, the redox properties of catalysts were believed to relate to the amount of oxygen vacancies (regarded as active sites) in oxide catalysts. However, the steady-state concentration of oxygen vacancies is related to the rate of vacancy formation and that of vacancy vanishing. In other words, a real active oxygen vacancy should have high abilities of adsorbing the reactant molecules and desorbing the product molecules, allowing molecules easy come, easy go. To keep a balance of these two opposite abilities, the local environment of the oxygen vacancy plays an important role.It has been well accepted that doping of low-valence dopants in oxides can create oxygen vacancies due to a charge compensation effect, [16,17] accompanied by improved oxygen activation ability, which is usually considered as the key factor in promoting catalytic activity for redox reactions. However, when the oxides are doped by same-valence or high-valence dopants, the effect of doping on their catalytic performance will become much more complicated. Fortunately, for most oxidation reactions catalyzed by metal oxides, the lattice oxygen atoms at/near the surface of oxides are the active species based on a generally accepted Mars− van Krevelen (MvK) mechanism. [18] Therefore, the bonding situations of these surface oxygen atoms should be the key factors affecting the catalytic performance.In the last few years, researchers have paid more attention to the chemical environment of oxygen vacancies, including To identify the intrinsic active sites in oxides or oxide supported catalysts is a research frontier in the fields of heterogeneous catalysis and material science. In particular, the role of oxygen vacancies on the redox properties of oxide catalysts is still not fully understood. Herein, some relevant research dealing with M 1 -O-M 2 or M 1 -□-M 2 linkages as active sites in mixed oxides, in oxide supported single-atom catalysts, and at metal/oxide interfaces of oxide supporte...