Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits a campus of Hunan First Normal University, and learns about the university's efforts in putting resources related to the Party's heritage to great use and its adherence to fostering virtue through education, in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, March 18, 2024.

On March 18 and 19, Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), embarked on his first trip, after the conclusion of the "Two Sessions," to Changsha and Changde in central China's Hunan Province, where he conducted several inspections.

This marks Xi's fourth visit to Hunan since the 18th National Congress of the CPC. Prior to the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in 2013, he inspected Hunan the first time during which the crucial discourse on "targeted poverty alleviation" was put forward, followed by a second tour to places including Yueyang city, while advancing the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in 2018. Then in 2020 he presided over a symposium in Changsha to gather input from grassroots individuals regarding economic and social development during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. Each of President Xi's visits to Hunan has coincided with pivotal moments in the Party's, and the country's, development.

This year heralds the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and presents a crucial juncture for achieving the goals outlined in the "14th Five-Year Plan." Hunan, as a major economic province in central China, witnessed its total economic output surpass 5 trillion yuan (about $700 billion) for the first time last year.

Compared to his inspection in Changsha four years ago that mainly emphasized the imperative to forge new paths in promoting high-quality development, President Xi this time focused primarily on two places: a campus of Hunan First Normal University and a battery materials joint venture.

Hunan First Normal University is regarded as one of the cradles of modern education for teachers in China. It also holds historical significance as one of the earliest platforms for the development of Mao Zedong Thought. In his visit to the university, President Xi sought to grasp the institution's adept utilization of its revolutionary legacy and commitment to moral education.

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits a campus of Hunan First Normal University, and learns about the university's efforts in putting resources related to the Party's heritage to great use and its adherence to fostering virtue through education, in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, March 18, 2024.

Five years ago, on March 18, 2019, Xi delivered profound insights into educational principles at a national symposium for teachers of ideological and political theory. Emphasizing the crucial aspects of cultivating individuals, he addressed questions pertaining to whom to cultivate, how to nurture them, and the intended beneficiaries of such cultivation.

Last May, at the fifth collective study session of the Central Political Bureau, President Xi especially pointed out that building a strongly educated nation must be fundamentally guaranteed by adhering to the Party's comprehensive leadership in education, making moral education the primary task, aiming at nurturing individuals aligned with the Party's ethos and the nation's cause as the overarching aim, serving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation as an important mission, modernizing education in terms of concepts, systems, institutions, content, methods, and governance as the basic path, and bolstering Chinese-style modernization as the core function, ultimately delivering satisfactory education for the people.

The second stop of the inspection tour was BASF Shanshan Battery Materials Co., Ltd, a joint venture established in 2021 by the German chemical company BASF and the Chinese enterprise Shanshan, that epitomized the largest foreign investment project introduced to Hunan Province in 2021.

In 2013, during his first visit to Changsha, President Xi inspected two enterprises where he encouraged them to seize opportunities and continuously promote innovation in technology, management, products, markets, and branding. Fast forward to 2020, during an inspection of a Hunan-based company, Xi reiterated the importance of indigenous innovation. During this visit to the battery materials company, he focused on understanding the local efforts geared towards accelerating the development of new quality productive forces and expanding high-level openness to the outside world.

On March 19, President Xi made a visit to a cultural street and a village. During the stay, he learned about the restoration and revitalization of historical and cultural districts, the comprehensive approach towards urban water environment management, the diligent preparation for spring farming, and the enhanced efficiency of grassroots governance.

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, waves to citizens while visiting a cultural street in Changde, central China's Hunan Province, March 19, 2024.

Xi particularly emphasized, "We must steadfastly maintain the initiative in food security and prioritize food production year after year." He stressed that only when a nation relies on fundamental self-sufficiency in food production can it truly secure the initiative in food security, gain the confidence to navigate risks, and ensure national security, social stability, and the happiness of its people.

At the annual "Two Sessions" this year, President Xi underscored the development of new quality productive forces multiple times and elucidated the strategic approach for advancing them. His trip to Hunan serves as a directive for expediting the development of new quality productive forces. Notably, the number of national advanced manufacturing clusters in Hunan ranks third nationwide and the first in the central and western regions of China, that can definitely boost the province's confidence in spearheading the development of new quality productive forces.

While Hunan promotes the cultivation of new quality productive forces, it can be anticipated that the province will also ardently align itself with the national opening-up strategy, deeply integrating into the collective endeavor of the Belt and Road Initiative, and catalyzing the advancement of foreign trade.

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, waves to citizens while visiting a cultural street in Changde, central China's Hunan Province, March 19, 2024.

(The writer Xin Ge, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a research fellow at the Institute of Public Policy and Governance, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.)