The invention discloses a clean production method of oxidizing 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy mandelic acid for joint production of vanillin and superfine silver powder under an alkaline condition by adopting silver nitrate. The clean production method comprises the following steps: adding a silver nitrate solution, a 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy mandelic acid solution and a sodium hydroxide solution in a parallel flow manner into a reactor, reacting to generate a 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy acetophenone sodium solution and superfine silver powder, filtering and separating the generated silver powder, washing with deionized water and ethyl alcohol sequentially, and drying to obtain the superfine silver powder, wherein the reduction yield of the silver powder is 99.4 per cent to 100 per cent; acidizing filter liquor after the silver powder is separated, performing decarboxylation on 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy benzoylformic acid to generate the vanillin, using methylbenzene to extract the vanillin therein, recycling the methylbenzene solvent, and performing recrystallization on residues in an ethanol aqueous solution to obtain the vanillin, wherein the oxidation yield of the methoxy-4-hydroxy mandelic acid is 95.7 per cent to 98.5 per cent. The silver nitrate is taken as an oxidizing agent to prepare the vanillin, so that the oxidation yield is improved, and the oxidation reaction time is shortened. Two practical fine chemical products can be produced simultaneously, the raw materials can be sufficiently utilized, the generation of waste materials is reduced, the production cost is reduced, and the technological process is safe and environment-friendly.