Embrace the wind again! Ten key words redefine western China
2024-11-27
Since the beginning of this year, the TV drama 'My Altay' has continued to be popular, contributing to the development of Xinjiang's tourism industry; In early November, the largest single coal mining subsidence area photovoltaic base in China was connected to the grid for power generation in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, which can meet the annual electricity demand of about 2 million households; Against the backdrop of economic pressure, in the first three quarters of this year, 10 out of 12 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in the western region saw a growth rate of added value of industrial enterprises above designated size higher than the national average; Recently, western China has frequently become a hot topic of concern, reshaping people's understanding of this vast, mysterious, and fertile land. Behind these news, a new round of large-scale development has begun, and the western region is once again standing at the forefront of the times. In April, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the symposium on promoting the development of the western region in the new era that the western region plays a crucial role in the overall reform, development, and stability of the country. We must consistently implement the policies and measures of the Party Central Committee to promote the development of the western region, and further form a new pattern of great protection, great opening up, and high-quality development. In August, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting to review several policy measures to further promote the formation of a new pattern in the development of the western region. The total area of the western region accounts for about 72% of the country, including Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Xizang, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Guangxi. The population accounts for about 27% of the country, and the total regional gross domestic product (GDP) accounts for about 21% of the country. The "Western Development" first appeared in the documents of the Party Central Committee in 1999. In 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China passed the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Western Development in the New Era and Forming a New Pattern. Under the new strategic chess game, the role of the western region in China's overall development map will be redefined. The new round of western development is related to regional balanced development, internal and external circulation, and the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road". There will be many new prospects and new trends. （1） Ecology: Building a strong security barrier to support high-quality development. In 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China called for the promotion of the Western Development in the new era, forming a new pattern of great protection, great opening up, and high-quality development. Ecological protection "is a distinct strategic positioning in the western region. In April this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the symposium on promoting the development of the western region in the new era that we must adhere to high-level protection to support high-quality development and build a solid national ecological security barrier. The western region is extremely important for China's ecological security. ——Connect one end to the water source. The Qinghai Tibet Plateau, known as the "water tower of Asia", is the source of China's two mother rivers - the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, and more than ten other major rivers, meeting the water needs of approximately 2 billion people worldwide. ——The other end is tied to prevent wind and sand. There are eight major deserts and four major sandy areas distributed in the northwest of China, connected to large deserts and Gobi in surrounding countries. The majority of sandstorms in Chinese cities come from here. Protecting the ecology of the western region is crucial for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation. In recent years, China has strengthened the comprehensive management of key areas such as the Three Rivers Source and Qilian Mountains, innovatively implemented the construction of national park system, and protected key areas of national ecological security barriers on a large scale. The first batch of 5 national parks will be officially established in 2021, including Sanjiangyuan and Giant Panda National Parks in the west. Data shows that in the past five years, the net area of water bodies and wetland ecosystems in the Three Rivers Source has increased by 309 square kilometers, with an average annual growth rate of over 6% in water conservation capacity. More than 60 billion cubic meters of high-quality freshwater are stably transported to the middle and lower reaches every year. For more than 40 years, China has continued to implement a series of major ecological projects, such as "three north" shelter forest construction, natural forest protection, conversion of farmland to forests, conversion of grazing land to grassland, and "double reduction" of desertification and sandy land. The "Three North" project alone has accumulated 480 million acres of afforestation, treated 1.28 billion acres of degraded grasslands, and built a "Green Great Wall" that stretches for thousands of miles. Big protection does not mean no development, but a new path of prioritizing ecology and green development. For example, Inner Mongolia, which suffers from severe desertification, has achieved the first and second largest forest and grassland areas in the country after years of desertification prevention and control. These forests and grasses absorb and fix carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, helping the local area achieve its annual carbon dioxide reduction targets. Since last year, Inner Mongolia has achieved a carbon sequestration value of over 60 million yuan in various forms. Clean air and water sources, high-quality agricultural products, magnificent natural scenery... In the vast western region, vivid examples of "green mountains and clear waters are as valuable as mountains of gold and silver" abound. Currently, climate change poses severe challenges to global development. Expert research has confirmed that the climate in the northwest region of China is showing a clear trend of warming and humidification, and is expanding eastward. The accelerated melting of glaciers has caused an imbalance in the "Asian water tower", increasing the risk of disasters such as ice avalanches, floods, and extreme droughts in some areas. To further strengthen the national ecological security barrier and ensure high-quality economic and social development, China has deployed 9 major projects for the protection and restoration of important ecosystems in areas such as the Qinghai Tibet Plateau ecological barrier zone, the Yellow River key ecological zone, the Yangtze River key ecological zone, and the northern sand prevention belt. （2） Openness: From the end to the front, new channels have been constructed as a major hub. In recent years, consumers in Beijing, Shanghai and other places have been accustomed to moving their fingers on their mobile phones. Within a few days, they received fresh tropical fruits from Southeast Asian countries, such as durian and jackfruit. Little known is that most of these fruits are transported by train or car, passing through the land port of Pingxiang, Guangxi on the southwest border of China, and cleared through customs for entry. Pingxiang, located on the border between China and Vietnam, was once a quiet small county town for many years. With the reform and opening up, especially the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road", the story here has been rewritten. The improvement of infrastructure such as roads is accelerating, customs clearance is becoming increasingly convenient, and a large amount of goods are rapidly circulating at ports. With strong popularity and bustling traffic, Pingxiang has been praised by some netizens as the "fruit free first place". If viewed from a high altitude, in the 12 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in the west, micro "nodes" like Pingxiang quietly connect one by one, building a continuous land sea new channel and becoming a new symbol of China's opening-up to the outside world. For a long time, in people's eyes, the southeastern coastal region was synonymous with openness, and China's foreign trade mainly targeted European and American countries. Today, the connotation of openness is constantly refreshing. The joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" has broken through the bottleneck of China's foreign trade and activated a new open space. China's western region borders 13 countries and is a gateway area for China to open up to the west, north, and South and Southeast Asian countries. As a landmark project of the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road", the new land and sea channel in the west connects the east and west, runs through the south and north. Goods go to sea through railways, sea transportation, highways, etc., and go south through Guangxi, reaching 542 ports in 125 countries and regions. Relying on this channel, some western hinterland areas that are not along the border or by the sea have gained new opportunities. For example, the new energy vehicle parts produced in Chongqing are transported southward through Qinzhou Port in Guangxi, which takes more than 10 days compared to the original southward transportation along the Yangtze River and the eastern coast. The logistics cost for exporting to Indonesia is reduced by about half. Channels bring logistics, logistics bring economy and trade, fruits from Xinjiang, lithium from Qinghai, integrated circuits from Shaanxi... "Made in the West" and even "Made in China" are thus moving more and faster towards the world. In 2020, ASEAN surpassed the European Union for the first time to become China's largest trading partner in goods. In the past four years, ASEAN has remained China's largest trading partner. Last year, ASEAN accounted for 15.4% of China's total foreign trade value. The China Europe freight train, the Western Land Sea New Corridor, and the 'Air Silk Road' have transformed the western region from an inland area to a new frontier of opening up to the outside world Zhao Lei, Vice President of the International Strategic Research Institute of the Central Party School, said. In 2023, the top three cities with the highest number of domestic China Europe freight trains will be located in the western region, namely Xi'an, Chongqing, and Chengdu, accounting for over 40% of the total number of trains in China. How to better leverage the effectiveness of opening up in the western region in the future? Experts believe that optimizing the open environment is the strategic core to ensure the sustainable development of the western economy. With the changing global economic landscape, the western region must adopt diversified market strategies, reduce dependence on a single market, and expand the coverage of foreign trade; We should focus on enhancing the added value of our products and strengthening our international competitiveness; We need to strengthen government services, improve the business environment, simplify approval processes, attract more foreign investment... In addition, we need to pay special attention to the deep understanding that culture is a profound and lasting force, strengthen cultural exchanges and educational cooperation with relevant countries, enhance soft power, and continuously deepen economic and trade cooperation. （3） Transportation: Blank spaces are being filled in, connecting into a network to accelerate. "The national transportation map is like a painting, with meticulous brushstrokes in the central, eastern, and northeastern regions of China. The blank spaces in the western region are too large, and we will need to fill in a few more strokes in the future to depict the beautiful transportation of China even more beautifully," General Secretary Xi Jinping said earnestly during his inspection of Tibet in 2021. In just a few short years, the blank space in the western region is accelerating to be filled. By the end of 2023, the railway mileage in the western region will reach 64000 kilometers, the highway mileage will reach 2.2 million kilometers, the expressway will cover 97% of cities and prefecture level administrative centers with a population of over 200000, and the number of civil aviation transport airports will account for more than half of the country. The inconvenience of transportation in the western region is gradually becoming a thing of the past, such as being unable to leave Inner Mongolia for a few days, changing from a car to a cart, crossing mountains and rivers. The three-dimensional transportation network composed of water, land, and air, from temperate monsoon climate to plateau mountain climate and subtropical monsoon climate, not only connects people living in the "four seasons" closely, but also connects the development of the western region. For example, Golmud City in Qinghai Province, developed by the Qinghai Tibet Highway, is responsible for the transportation and distribution of 85% of the materials entering Tibet and some materials entering and leaving Xizang. With the increasing density of the road network, this small Gobi city has become an important hub to reach Gansu, Sichuan, Xinjiang and Tibet. The rapid development of infrastructure in the western region is a typical epitome of China's "infrastructure maniac". More than 30000 bridges fly over mountain peaks and deep valleys, making Guizhou, which is known for its "three foot flat land," an important transportation hub in the southwest region and renowned worldwide as the "Bridge Museum. Looking at the bridge "has become a popular option for western tourism in recent years. The new western land sea corridor is heading south, while the China Europe freight train is heading north. A main transportation artery running through the southwest and northwest has emerged, accelerating the flow of people, logistics, and capital. Developing civil aviation transportation is a feasible path for the western region to solve the problems of vast land and sparse population, as well as high land construction costs. In recent years, fresh flowers from Yunnan, digital products from Sichuan and Chongqing, beef and mutton from Qinghai Tibet, and fresh fruits and vegetables from Xinjiang can not only be sent to the mainland at any time, but also fly to the world. The development of transportation in the western region is on the eve of networking Guo Xuan, a planner from the Western Branch of China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, said. According to the plan, by 2035, more than half of the newly added national highways will be located in the west, and over 30% of the "Eight Verticals and Eight Horizontals" high-speed railway network will be built in the west; In the key construction projects of national transportation airports during the 14th Five Year Plan period, there are 22 newly started airports in the western region, accounting for more than half. In the future, as more and more important nodes are connected, the transportation network in the western region will become increasingly dense, providing stronger guarantees for the high-quality development of the economy and society and the high-quality life of the people. （4） Energy: The "multi energy complementary" model has taken shape, and for some people in Shandong, a subtle change is happening: the lights in their homes are still the same, but the electricity is no longer the same as before. At the beginning of November, "Chinese people built a power generation ocean in the desert" made a hot search on microblog. The photovoltaic base in the largest single coal mining subsidence area in China was connected to the grid in Etuokeqian Banner, Ordos, Inner Mongolia. These green electricity are not consumed locally, but are instead consumed
Edit：He Chuanning Responsible editor：Su Suiyue
Source：Xinhua
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