You said that "any unit or individual has filed an application for the same invention or utility model with the patent administration department of the State Council before the application date, and it is recorded in the patent application documents published or announced after the application date." It means to refute the application. The simple understanding is to apply in advance and publish later.
For example, suppose A and B are the same inventions, and the filing date of a patent application is 20 1 1 February 1 20 1/September1. B the filing date of this patent application is 20 1 1 mar 1 day. When B applied for a patent, A had applied for it, but it had not been published. A constitutes a conflicting application of B. B it's not novel.
It should be noted that conflicting applications can only be used to evaluate novelty, not creativity.