Xi Stresses Deepening Reform, Expanding Opening Up, Advancing Chinese Modernisation
Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed the importance of remaining steadfast in comprehensively deepening reform and expanding high-standard opening up, and urged Guangdong Province, a pacesetter of the country’s reform and opening up, to take the lead in advancing Chinese modernisation.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during his inspection tour of Guangdong in south China from Monday to Thursday.
Noting that Guangdong is a pioneer and pacesetter of China’s reform and opening up, Xi said the province bears great importance and plays an outstanding role in Chinese modernisation.
He asked the province to take the lead in comprehensively deepening reform, promoting high-standard opening up, beefing up China’s selfreliance and strength in science and technology, modernizing its industrial system, and coordinating balanced development between urban and rural areas and between regions.
On Monday morning, Xi visited a mariculture base under a national-level key project in the city of Zhanjiang, where he called for attention to food security in China, a country with a population of over 1.4 billion, emphasizing the need to utilise both land and sea resources.
Xi called for elaborate efforts in developing the breeding industry as it serves as the foundation of the development of modern agriculture and aquaculture.
More should be done to develop deep-sea aquaculture equipment and smart fishing industry, Xi said, calling for further upgrading of marine fishery.
Xi referred to the mangrove forests located in a national nature reserve in Zhanjiang as a national treasure and urged for careful protection in a way like people protect their own eyes. He emphasized the need for persistent efforts towards green development, with aims to build a beautiful China while also contributing to the preservation of the global environment.
On Monday afternoon, Xi arrived at Xuwen Port, a key project that facilitates the collaborative development of Guangdong with its neighboring island province of Hainan. He was informed about Guangdong’s endeavors to improve regional connectivity through the development of better transportation infrastructure and to align its development with that of the Hainan Free Trade Port.
Xi emphasized the role of the Qiongzhou Strait between Guangdong and Hainan as a vital gateway to the development of the Hainan Free Trade Port. He said Xuwen Port should be upgraded into a modern, comprehensive hub of water and land transportation that connects the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Hainan Free Trade Port.
While in the county of Xuwen, Xi also visited a reservoir that is part of a water diversion project in Guangdong.
China must take issues related to water resources into consideration when pushing forward modernisation, as the country faces the challenges of insufficient and unbalanced water resources, he said.