President's nationwide trips show road to the future

He emphasizes need for modernization, innovation, integrated development

For decades, Mo Chongxu's sugar cane plantation has been a vital source of income — allowing his parents to raise him and his siblings, and allowing him and his wife to pay their daily bills and tuition for their three children.

However, cultivating the crop is now vastly different from when he inherited the trade from his father.

In those days, they had to endure stifling heat throughout the cultivation process, said Mo, who lives in a village in Laibin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

"Mechanization is now being seen in all farming procedures, including growing, pesticide application and harvesting, and we can work throughout the day without having to worry about heatstroke," the 41-year-old said.

Mo is among some 520,000 sugar cane growers in Laibin, a city where the crop has been cultivated for 1,000 years and contributes to about 10 percent of China's sugar production.

On Dec 14, Mo was among a group of farmers who welcomed President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, when he made a fact-finding trip to Laibin.

Xi asked about Mo's family members and their sugar cane farms, before urging regional officials to help boost the farmers' incomes.

The president views the work of farmers such as Mo as being closely tied to hopes for the nation's self-reliance in the sugar industry, and more broadly, its food security.

More important, modernization of the agricultural sector and rural areas is a vital part of Chinese modernization, a key vision set out by Xi at the Party's 20th National Congress in 2022 to advance the nation's great rejuvenation.

Xi made 16 domestic fact-finding trips nationwide last year, traveling to 15 provincial-level regions and outlining key steps for rural modernization, ecological protection, self-reliance in science and technology, and the drive for common prosperity.

Han Qiang, dean of the School of Marxism at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said Xi put forward comprehensive visions of Chinese modernization by taking into account the actual situation in various regions.

"During the trips, the president discussed both theory and methodology, while strategically planning the advancement of Chinese-style modernization at the start of the nation's new journey," he said.

Integrated development

One priority for Xi on his domestic travels last year was to advance integrated development for different regions.

In May, he visited Xiong'an New Area, about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing, to push for new progress in the nation's "city of the future".

Speaking to officials during the trip, Xi stressed the need to advance the high-quality and high-standard development of Xiong'an, a landmark project for coordinating the growth of Beijing and neighboring Tianjin and Hebei province.

The president laid out the requirements for making Xiong'an an innovation hub and a fertile ground for entrepreneurship in the new era. He said it must strive to build a first-class business environment and formulate a comprehensive set of special support policies to attract and gather domestic and foreign forces, and capital.

Beijing Eyecool Technology Co, which researches and develops artificial intelligence, is one of the 219 high-tech startups that have moved their headquarters to Xiong'an in the past years.

Zhou Jun, the company's founder and CEO, said the decision to relocate to Xiong'an has been fully vindicated, as the company's revenue has soared to a historic high.

He said the infrastructure in Xiong'an has been increasingly refined, with institutional reforms delivering a transparent business environment for companies.

"Xiong'an has become a fertile ground for innovation and entrepreneurship," he said.

In April and September, Xi traveled to Guangdong and Heilongjiang provinces, respectively, to advance national strategies for developing the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and revitalizing the northeastern areas of the country.

He also visited Jiangxi province in October to present a new vision for developing the Yangtze River Economic Belt, before going to Shanghai to outline steps for developing the Yangtze River Delta region.

Last year, the nation's top leadership enhanced the top-level design for coordinating regional development by merging several leadership groups into one dedicated group. They included those for development, revitalizing the northeast, and the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.