[ad_1]
Image source,XINHUA
On October 12, Xi Jinping inspected and investigated in Guangdong (the image shows that Xi Jinping contacted residents at the site when he inspected Paifang Street in Chaozhou City).
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Guangdong this week. In addition to visiting cities like Chaozhou, he will also attend and deliver a speech on the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone on October 14. At a time when the situation in Hong Kong is not calm, China-US relations are strained, and the new corona epidemic is damaging global development, Xi Jinping is once again on the front line of the ” reform and opening up “of China and is expected to release new signals of China’s economic development and foreign relations.
The Shenzhen inspections by the CCP leaders have always attracted great attention. In 1979, the CCP decided to pilot special economic zones in four cities in Guangdong, including Shenzhen. Guangdong, especially Shenzhen, became the “vanguard” of China’s economic reform and opening-up. In 1989, “June 4”, as the dispute over the economic line between reformers and conservatives in China became increasingly fierce, Deng Xiaoping delivered a series of speeches on the “South Tour” of Shenzhen and Zhuhai in 1992, that was the goal of China’s future socialist market economy. Lay the groundwork.
After Deng Xiaoping, the leaders of the Communist Party of China will go to Shenzhen to participate in the celebrations every ten years when the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was established. In 2000, then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin attended the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and unveiled the statue of Deng Xiaoping on Lianhua Mountain; In 2010, then-Chinese President Hu Jintao attended the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.
This is the third time that Xi Jinping has visited Guangdong since taking over as China’s top leader. Compared to the previous two occasions, this time he and the CCP faced extremely different domestic and foreign environments.
2012: Mobilization for economic reforms right after taking office
Guangdong was once the first stop for Xi Jinping to leave Beijing for overseas inspections after becoming China’s top leader. In December 2012, less than a month after becoming the supreme leader of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping traveled to four cities in Guangdong, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan and Guangdong.
Because it was similar to Deng Xiaoping’s “South Tour” route, this so-called “New South Tour” trip was seen as a move by Xi Jinping to further signal economic openness and reform.
Image source,fake images
Because it was similar to Deng Xiaoping’s “South Tour” route, this so-called “New South Tour” trip was considered at the time as Xi Jinping’s new sign of economic openness and reform.
At that time, China had made many achievements with the help of years of sustained and rapid economic growth, but some problems also began to emerge. The “anti-corruption” campaign has exposed the perennial ills of the Chinese system. The Chinese economy has started to show slowing momentum. Under the global financial crisis, there has been talk about China’s economic “hard landing” and even the “collapse theory” at home and abroad, and China’s domestic demand for the economy and the voices of political reforms. they are more free and open.
The Chinese state media generally referred to this inspection as the “call for reform and opening up.” Xi Jinping said in Shenzhen at the time that the Communist Party of China Central Committee “decisions on reform and opening up were correct” and that “this correct path” will continue to be “steadfastly traveled” and “further developments are required.”
“The reason I came to Guangdong is to go to the place where China’s reform and opening-up is the first to come, review China’s historical reform and opening-up process, and continue to push for reform and opening-up,” he said during the speech. inspection.
After assuming the position of top leader, Xi Jinping also proposed to realize the “Chinese dream” of “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” After that, the general rise of this type of nationalist narrative in China has lessened many discussions of greater economic openness and freedom.
2018: 40th anniversary of “reform and opening up” and the trade war between China and the United States
2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China’s “reform and opening-up”. In October of the same year, Xi Jinping visited Guangdong again after six years. This time his power is more consolidated, but the situation he faces is even more difficult.
At that time, Xi Jinping obtained an institutional guarantee for his lifetime re-election after the constitution was amended by the National People’s Congress in early 2018. In the past six years, his heavy-handed style and conservative economic approach have been increasingly deviated from the outside world’s expectations of him as a “reformer” when he took office. The decision to amend the constitution has drawn criticism against him as a “dictator.”
It was also this year that he faced the biggest diplomatic setback since taking office: the trade war between China and the United States, which also greatly clouded his economic outlook.
Image source,Reuters
Recently, Sino-US relations have fallen to the historic freezing point of establishing diplomatic relations more than 40 years ago, with mutual restrictions on technology, education and trade.
Since 2013, Xi Jinping’s “new pioneer” scheme has been gradually appearing. In 2013, Xi Jinping proposed the concept of “One Belt One Road”. The two routes that start from China and span several continents are China’s new roadmap for opening up and part of the “Chinese Dream.” However, this plan also unleashed the international community questioned its transparency and the use of it by the CCP to export in an authoritarian manner.
After that, China further proposed the “Made in China 2025” plan in 2015 to improve the competitiveness of China’s high-tech industry, but this was completely attacked in the Sino-US trade war. The United States believes that this plan allows the Chinese government to offer policy incentives for domestic companies in some emerging industries, which is not conducive to free competition in the market.
At the same time, Hong Kong, China’s “Pearl of the Orient,” has increasingly troubled Chinese Communist Party leaders in recent years. In 2014, supporters of the Hong Kong Democrats launched the Occupy Movement (also known as the “Umbrella Movement”) for universal suffrage without a selection mechanism, attracting global attention. A serious conflict between the police and the civilian population broke out in Hong Kong in 2016, showing that Hong Kong’s social disagreement and public dissatisfaction with the government have increased.
In 2015, the Communist Party of China introduced the “Greater Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area” initiative in the “One Belt, One Route” plan. It provides for the integration of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions with Guangdong into a new urban agglomeration. Supporters are very unhappy. They believe that this “hard integration” is an action by the mainland to further weaken Hong Kong’s “high degree of autonomy” and freedom, and the vast majority of Hong Kong’s population will not benefit from this.
Image source,XINHUA
Xi Jinping arrived in Zhuhai, Guangdong in October 2018 to preside over the opening ceremony of the “Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge”, a major project in the “Greater Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area”, and inspected in Shenzhen.
During that inspection, Xi Jinping responded to external concerns about the “private market exit theory” and once again emphasized the need to continue “reform and opening up.” He said that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has always attached great importance to the development of the non-public sector of the economy. This “no change, no change”, China’s reform will not stop, openness will not stop, and “certainly there will be new and greater miracles that the world will admire.” .
However, this did not alleviate the impact of the continuing escalation of trade frictions between China and the US on the Chinese economy. After that, China has faced increasingly complex challenges.
2020: the situation in Hong Kong, Sino-US relations and the epidemic are intertwined
In 2020, the CCP, which is trying to recover from the new corona epidemic, will face a more difficult external environment. The new coronavirus, which was first discovered in China at the beginning of the year, spread to the world, and doubts and accusations from the outside world about the initial ineffective response of the Chinese government to the epidemic have caused severe damage to the international image. from China.
The trade war between the United States and China has turned into conflicts and frictions between the two countries in various fields, and there are constant discussions about the “new cold war” in the world. Even Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi candidly said that China-US relations are facing the “gravest situation” since the establishment of diplomatic ties.
In Hong Kong in 2019, the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region forced the “Fleeing Criminals Ordinance” to trigger a serious political unrest in Hong Kong since the transfer of sovereignty. Large-scale demonstrations broke out again and lasted for several months. In 2020, the forceful application of the “National Security Law” by the Communist Party of China in Hong Kong was seen as strengthening its control over Hong Kong, and it was accused of undermining “One Country, Two Systems”, resulting a general condemnation of the main western countries.
Furthermore, on the eve of the Fifth Plenary Session of the XIX Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in which Xi Jinping headed south to Zhengzhi, the CCP plans to formulate China’s national economic “XIV Five-Year Plan” and a long-term plan by 2035 at that meeting. Therefore, in this Shenzhen speech, the way Xi Jinping elaborated on China’s economic development and international problems will undoubtedly arouse the attention of the outside world.
