Xi Jinping tells China’s biggest economic zone to ‘balance growth and security’

INTERNATIONAL DESK: President Xi Jinping wants to see a stronger push to develop China’s largest economic zone – the Yangtze River Economic Belt – with an emphasis on not only high-quality and green growth, but also security.

The region, which covers 11 provinces and municipalities along the world’s third-longest river, needs to take a long-term perspective on ecological conservation and economic growth, Xi said on Thursday at a high-level meeting in Jiangxi, one of the participating provinces.

Instead of striving to achieve short-term results amid China’s complex economic problems, Xi instructed officials to “take the long view, make long-term strategies, and safeguard long-lasting security” at the meeting attended by high-ranking officials, including three other Politburo members, Xinhua reported.

Localities under the Yangtze belt should “balance growth and security, and play a bigger role in protecting national security in terms of food, energy, key industry chains, and water”, Xi was quoted as saying at the meeting.

The gathering was reminiscent of one in May, when Xi visited the Xiongan New Area, a prominent national development zone in Hebei province that has been one of the president’s pet projects since 2016.

Xi’s repeated emphasis on national security came as hopes appear to be fading that Beijing will roll out a large-scale stimulus before a key autumn meeting of the Communist Party.

The party’s 20th Central Committee is expected to hold its third plenum later this year, when central leaders could present a series of policies to address some of the country’s economic challenges.

The post-Covid recovery of the world’s second-largest economy has shown signs of improvement in recent months, but it still faces a slew of setbacks including real-estate woes and a local government debt crisis.

The sprawling Yangtze River Economic Belt is China’s biggest economic zone with the highest economic density, according to official figures that show it covers about 21 per cent of the nation’s total land area and more than 40 per cent of the population, while accounting for more than 45 per cent of China’s gross domestic product. It also has nine of China’s 21 pilot free-trade zones.

Top leaders of the localities under the initiative were also ordered to stick to the principle of “jointly protecting the environment and refraining from mega projects” while pursuing new growth from technological innovation, according to Xinhua.

Calling for more breakthroughs in core technologies, Xi suggested that the area rely on advanced manufacturing and strategic emerging industries to drive future development.

And it needs to make better use of resources both at home and from abroad, improving its attractiveness to foreign investors while increasing the liability of the domestic cycle of production, distribution and consumption, he said.

While stressing regional cooperation, the initiative emphasises protection of the ecological system and treatment of pollution along the Yangtze, including a 10-year fishing ban that authorities said has significantly improved the river’s biodiversity since entering effect at the start of 2020.
Officially announced in 2014, the Yangtze belt is one of Xi’s flagship economic projects, along with the Jing-Jin-Ji (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei) industrial cluster, which includes the Xiongan New Area in the north and the Greater Bay Area in the south. (South China Morning Post)