Xi Story: Fostering new pioneer for comprehensive reform, opening-up in China's southernmost island province

This aerial photo taken on Feb. 26, 2023 shows the Yangpu Bonded Port Area in the Yangpu Economic Development Zone, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu)

HAIKOU, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- In the blueprint that President Xi Jinping has drawn up for China's deepened reform and opening-up in the new era, the southernmost province of Hainan stands out for shouldering multiple roles.

It is not only a pilot zone for comprehensively deepening reform and opening-up but also a demonstration zone for national ecological civilization, as well as an emerging international tourism island and a prospective free trade port with Chinese characteristics.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has visited the province three times since 2013, personally promoting its development in hopes that the tropical island could be a new vanguard for the country's deepened reform and greater opening-up.

The schedule of his inspection tours focused on seed breeding, rainforests and ecology, marine technology and ports, among others, offering a glimpse into the region's features and competitive positioning.

FOOD SECURITY

Every winter and spring, thousands of researchers from all over the country gather to breed and produce seeds in Hainan, a vital tropical base for crop seed breeding in China.

When inspecting a national seed production research base there in April 2018, Xi walked into a paddy field to see the growth of super rice. He was pleased to know that the yield of super hybrid rice varieties developed by Chinese researchers had set world record once and again.

Stressing that China should grow high-quality crop species with independent intellectual property rights to safeguard the country's food security, Xi encouraged local agro-technicians to build the base into a Silicon-Valley-like center that can integrate scientific research and production with sales and facilitate scientific and technological exchange and achievement transformation.

While visiting a seed laboratory in Sanya in Hainan in April last year, Xi also said seed resources must be "firmly held in our own hands" to ensure food security.

RAINFORESTS

Rainforests are also one of Xi's major concerns. He visited the Hainan Museum to see samples from a gene database of tropical island animals and plants and walked along wooden trestle roads in a tropical rainforest national park in Wuzhishan, Hainan, to see the ecological environment of the park.

During last year's tour in Hainan, Xi stopped from time to time at the National Park of Hainan Tropical Rainforest, one of the first five national parks established in China, to learn about the growth of trees, water source conservation, animal and plant resources protection, and so on.

Xi highlighted the importance of tropical rainforest preservation and the synchronized progress of ecological conservation, green development, and people's well-being.

"This park is a national treasure," he said. "We should fully understand its strategic significance to the country and strive to produce fruitful results."

MARINE DEVELOPMENT

With two-thirds of China's sea area under its jurisdiction, Hainan is uniquely positioned to advance marine science and technology, such as deep-sea exploration and development.

Visiting the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Sanya in April 2018, Xi learned about China's seabed exploration and examined deep-sea research equipment.

Xi said to the researchers that efforts should be stepped up to build China into a strong maritime country. China should utilize the South China Sea as its best natural venue for deep-sea research and experiments. Efforts should be made to develop deep-sea research bases and push for the development of deep-sea science and technologies, he said.

Xi also traveled in April last year to the Sanya Oceanographic Institute of the Ocean University of China to learn about marine science and technology development there.

Via video link, he talked to the staff working on Deep Sea No.1, the country's first independently-developed ultra-deepwater gas field. He encouraged them to use China's equipment to exploit oil and gas resources and increase energy self-sufficiency to guarantee the national energy security.

OPENING-UP

During his visit of Hainan in April 2013, Xi urged the island to leap in development by focusing on building Hainan into an international resort site. He stressed that "green mountains and clear waters, as well as blue seas and azure skies, are the biggest advantages of building an international tourism island, and must be cherished and carefully cared for."

Xi also made significant deployments during his inspection tours of Hainan in 2018 and 2022.

"Here I solemnly announce that the CPC Central Committee has decided to support Hainan in developing the whole island into a pilot free trade zone and gradually exploring and steadily promoting the establishment of a free trade port with Chinese characteristics," Xi said on April 13, 2018, at a conference celebrating the 30th anniversary of Hainan Province and the Hainan Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

In June 2020, China released a master plan to build the whole of Hainan Island into a globally influential and high-level free trade port by the middle of the century.

"Choosing Hainan to accomplish this historic task is also a strategic arrangement for constructing socialist SEZs with Chinese characteristics," Xi said during his trip to Hainan last year. "Through constant exploration and bold experimentation, we have now blazed a trail."

Xi also went to an international container port in the Yangpu Economic Development Zone in Danzhou, Hainan, to learn about the port's development.

During this visit, Xi called for accelerating the development of Hainan into a free trade port with Chinese characteristics and global influence, and making Hainan a paradigm of reform and opening-up in the new era.

In Xi's view, Hainan has established its name in many fields, such as China's largest SEZ, the permanent site of the Annual Conference of the Boao Forum for Asia, the international tourism island, the Yangpu Economic Development Zone, and the main production area of tropical agricultural products.

Xi said there is enormous potential and essential vitality to be explored and tapped in every aspect. "There is much to be done in all these spheres, and it deserves to be done well."