Touring province, president calls for innovation to drive national agenda
President Xi Jinping has highlighted the pivotal role of Central China’s Hubei province in the nation’s modernization drive, calling for greater strides in sci-tech and industrial innovation, ecological conservation, and deepening comprehensive reform and opening-up.
Speaking during a fact-finding trip to the province from Nov 4 to 6, Xi stressed the need for the region to forge ahead in the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and to build itself into a strategic fulcrum for the rise of the central region at an early date.
The trip took Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, to the cities of Xiaogan, Xianning, and Wuhan, the provincial capital.
With a GDP of 5.58 trillion yuan ($777.46 billion) and population of 58.38 million in 2023, Hubei is not just an economic powerhouse but also a region deeply integrated into China’s broader economic architecture. It was Xi’s second trip to the province in three years.
During the trip, the president toured a museum that exhibits ancient bamboo and wooden slips dating back to the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) and the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), and he called for unrelenting efforts in archaeological research and the protection of cultural relics.
In Jiayu county, he set foot in a field, surveying the growth of vegetables before shaking hands with a farmer. Xi stressed that the development of modern agriculture and the building of a strong agricultural sector must be underpinned by sci-tech progress.
The president visited a village to learn about efforts to ensure that grassroots officials can better perform their duties serving the people, sitting down with a family to learn about their jobs, family income, healthcare, and pensions.
Xi toured the Wuhan Institute of Industrial Innovation and Development, reiterating the need for greater self-reliance in science and technology and the development of new quality productive forces.
On Nov 6, he listened to work reports from provincial authorities and set out clear requirements for their future tasks.
Noting the province’s sharp edge in talent and solid capacity for sci-tech innovation, Xi called for stronger steps in sci-tech and industrial innovation. The province must proactively integrate itself into national innovation chains, striving to build a nationally influential hub for tech innovation and better harness its role as a source of sci-tech breakthroughs, he said.
Hubei, located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, must give top priority to the restoration of the ecology and environment of China’s longest river, Xi said.
Xi also said the province must forge ahead in deepening reform and expanding high-level opening-up, and he called for reforms in key sectors and critical areas, better integration into the unified national market, and the building of a more equitable and dynamic market environment.
