Full revitalization of enervated Northeast China imperative for country's holistic modernization

Northeast China, encompassing Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, has historically served as a pivotal industrial and agricultural base, especially during the nascent years of the People's Republic of China. Once the country's economic powerhouse driven by heavy industry and rich natural resources, the region has become enervated as factors such as inefficiency, overcapacity, and global economic changes led to the decline of these industries in the region.

Today, the rejuvenation of Northeast China stands as a cornerstone strategy endorsed by the Communist Party of China Central Committee for the country's holistic modernization.

That Chinese President Xi Jinping has again emphasized that it is imperative for Jilin province to diligently execute the directives laid out by the CPC Central Committee for the comprehensive revitalization of the region on Saturday underscores the importance the country's leadership attaches to the revitalization of the region to enhance the country's food security, ecological security, energy security and industrial security.

Xi stressed the significance of grounding development in the real economy, calling for the transformation of traditional industries, bolstering competitive sectors, and fostering new quality productive forces, as well as leveraging technological advancements to drive tangible productivity gains.

Although this call in Changchun, capital of Jilin, was made to the province — after Xi listened to the work report from the Jilin provincial CPC committee and the provincial government in the provincial capital — his remarks should be seen as reflecting the top Chinese leader's thoughts after his extensive fact-finding tours in the region over the past three weeks. Before his inspection tour of Changchun, Xi visited Heilongjiang province to attend the opening of the ninth Asian Winter Games in the provincial capital of Harbin on Friday, and Liaoning province late last month.

That reflects the country still harbors the hope that Northeast China can cultivate its own comparative strengths in today's economic system.

As Xi stressed, the human factor is crucial to the revitalization of Northeast China, as the purpose of implementing the strategy is to improve the people's livelihoods. So local governments should not only create the necessary environment for the people to give full play to their talents to develop the region but also let the people enjoy the dividends of development.

To that end, local governments should target the bottlenecks that restrict the construction of a new development pattern and the promotion of high-quality development, including eliminating the institutional and mechanism barriers that hinder the development of the private economy and strive to establish a top-tier business environment that is market-oriented, governed by law, and internationally integrated, with an aim to construct a more sophisticated open economy.

They should promote the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation, integrate scientific research resources and forces, strengthen the main position of corporate innovation, optimize the innovation ecology, and promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into real productivity.

Meanwhile, as Xi said, thanks to its special natural resources and geographical location, the region should coordinate its ecological environmental protection with green and low-carbon development, and use its unique advantages such as ice and snow, natural scenery, and ethnic customs to develop tourism. In the process, the localities in the region should strengthen their communication and coordination to avoid homogeneous and involutionary competition.

Xi's remarks also serve as guidance for other regions in the country that face similar challenges as Northeast China, including a brain drain, an aging society, shrinking population, resource depletion, underdeveloped private economy, difficult State-owned enterprise reforms and local government debt. These areas should have confidence that they can realize their revitalization and will not be left behind as the country pursues its modernization.