Global Times: Xi stresses firm confidence in high-quality development during Henan inspection tour

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May 22, 2025, 12:14 ET

BEIJING, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- President Xi Jinping has underscored unwavering confidence in boosting high-quality development and enhancing governance efficiency, while urging central China's Henan Province to write a new chapter in advancing Chinese modernization, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during his inspection tour of the cities of Luoyang and Zhengzhou in the province on Monday and Tuesday.

He emphasized that Henan should focus on building a modern industrial system and strengthening its agricultural capacity, improving people's well-being and social governance, enhancing ecological and environmental protection, and promoting cultural prosperity.

On Monday afternoon, Xi visited Luoyang Bearing Group Co., Ltd. Its predecessor was a factory established during China's inaugural five-year plan period (1953-57). The five-year plan laid the industrial foundation via concentrated efforts to build New China's first steel production base and first auto manufacturer.

Xi visited the company's intelligent manufacturing plant to learn about the performance and applications of various types of bearing products. He inspected the intelligent production lines and had an amiable conversation with the workers.

"China has always adhered to the path of developing the real economy. From the past reliance on imported matches, soap and iron, to now becoming the world's largest manufacturing country with the most complete industrial categories, we have taken the right path," Xi noted.

China must continue to strengthen the manufacturing sector, adhere to the principles of building self-reliance and strength, and master core technologies in key fields, Xi said.

He also urged efforts to strengthen collaboration between industries, universities and research institutes, and cultivate a large number of high-quality talents.

Xi has attached great importance to the development of Henan. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), he has made multiple inspection tours to the province, according to Xinhua in a separate report.

Advanced manufacturing

Experts noted that Xi's inspection tour has served as an encouragement to the development of Henan's manufacturing sector, while also instilling greater confidence in advancing the rise of the central region.

"Henan is not only a major grain-producing province, it also has a strong industrial foundation. Its strengths in manufacturing come from a rich labor pool, a long-standing industrial base, and proactive local government efforts to attract investment," Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin School of Administration, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Henan also enjoys a major transportation advantage - its role as one of Asia's largest transportation hubs makes connectivity a key strength. At the same time, as China's industrial system undergoes transformation and upgrading, a gradient shift is underway. Manufacturing activities that once clustered in the export-driven, processing-focused eastern region are gradually relocating to central and western China, Cong noted.

Leveraging these strengths, Henan has accelerated the development of seven advanced manufacturing clusters worth over one trillion yuan each, focusing on areas such as new materials, new-energy vehicles (NEVs), and advanced equipment.

Take Luoyang Bearing Group Co., Ltd, which Xi has visited in the latest inspection tour, for example. Founded in 1954, the company evolved from Luoyang Bearing Factory, one of the 156 key projects under China's First Five-Year Plan (1953-57). In recent years, it has invested heavily in research and development and achieved major industrial upgrades. Now a comprehensive bearing manufacturer, the company offers more than 30,000 products across nine major categories, according to Xinhua.

Today, high-end bearings account for 70 percent of its total output value. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), 13 of its technological innovations have reached international standards. Notably, the company's tunnel boring machine main bearings have ended China's reliance on imports in that field, Xinhua reported.

Henan has also made significant strides in the NEV sector. The province is now home to global industry leaders such as BYD, the world's largest electric vehicle maker; Yutong, the world's top new-energy bus manufacturer; and CATL, the leading global power battery supplier, the Henan Daily reported.

"In the past, we had to travel to [East China's] Zhejiang or [South China's] Guangdong to buy auto parts. Now, with over 600 large auto and parts companies in the province, we can place urgent orders and receive parts within two hours," Fu Shenghua, deputy Party chief of Yutong Bus Co, told the Global Times.

Henan has not only developed its own manufacturing industry, but also attracted high-end manufacturers, such as Foxconn from China's Taiwan region, thanks to its favorable infrastructure, business environment and strong policy support from the local government. This cooperation has helped transform Henan's economy, turning the province into a global hub for intelligent terminal manufacturing, according to Xinhua.

In the first quarter of this year, the added value of Henan's high-tech manufacturing rose by 14.1 percent year-on-year, while strategic emerging industries grew by 10.6 percent, according to local government data.

Write new chapter

On Tuesday morning, Xi heard the provincial authorities' work report.

Xi emphasized that high-quality development is fundamental to advancing Chinese modernization. In the face of a complex external environment, China should unwaveringly focus on managing domestic affairs well and expanding high-standard opening up, he added.

At the heart of China's vast territory, the country's central region comprises six provinces: Shanxi, Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi. The country has emphasized the need to accelerate the rise of its central region as part of its efforts to promote coordinated regional development.

The strategy to promote "the rise of central China" was first introduced in the 2004 government work report. "It has since played an increasingly vital role in China's high-quality development. City clusters such as Luoyang, Zhengzhou, and Hefei are becoming more prominent in the national economy and are driving regional growth," said Li Changan, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies, University of International Business and Economics.

With solid transport links, a vast labor force, and a robust industrial base, Central China is well-positioned to convert innovation and R&D achievements from the east into manufacturing capacity - enhancing overall competitiveness, Li noted.

After years of progress, the manufacturing sector in Central China is gaining national attention. Each of the six provinces has developed a signature industry: optoelectronics in Hubei, construction machinery in Hunan, NEVs in Anhui, aviation in Jiangxi, superhard materials in Henan, and energy equipment in Shanxi, according to Xinhua.

The region now covers all categories of China's industrial system, with a noticeable rise in technological intensity. The manufacturing value-added in Central China rose from 6.1 trillion yuan ($846 billion) in 2019 to 6.8 trillion yuan in 2023, accounting for about one-fifth of the national total, official data shows.

Meanwhile, with strong policy support, the six provinces have steadily transformed from latecomers into pioneers of China's opening-up. In Henan, for instance, goods from Nordic salmon and South American cherries to the latest Italian fashion can be distributed nationwide within 12 hours after arriving at Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport, Zhang Min, vice-governor of Henan, said at a press conference in May 2024.

Promoting cultural heritage

Xi also visited the White Horse Temple, originally built during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), where he learned about the adaptation of Buddhism to the Chinese context and local efforts to preserve cultural relics.

At the Longmen Grottoes, an over 1,500-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site which also represents the pinnacle of Chinese stone carving art, Xi underlined the importance of preserving, inheriting and promoting these treasures of Chinese culture.

The integration of culture and tourism holds great potential, Xi said, requiring efforts to promote the high-quality development of the sector and turn it into a pillar industry that benefits the people and enriches their lives.

As the world's largest treasure trove of stone carving art with the most statues, the Longmen Grottoes was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000 as "an outstanding manifestation of human artistic creativity," for its perfection of an art form, and for its encapsulation of the cultural sophistication created between the Northern Wei (386-534) and Song (960-1279) dynasties.

In recent years, the Longmen Grottoes have stepped up efforts to protect cultural relics and leveraged technology to transform static historical artifacts into dynamic digital archives. These initiatives have helped create new forms of cultural tourism and fresh consumption experiences, offering visitors a more engaging and immersive experience.

Gao Junping, director of the Information and Data Center of the Longmen Grottoes Research Institute, told the Global Times that "the digital protection work of the Longmen Grottoes represents a practice of the new quality productive forces in the field of cultural heritage conservation. Technologies including 3D printing have been applied to the conservation research of Buddhist statues and the polychrome restoration of the grottoes."

Central China continues to deliver standout performances in cultural tourism, new energy, and advanced manufacturing. This stronger "backbone" is injecting greater confidence and resilience into China's pursuit of high-quality development, experts said.