BEIJING, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- China has set attaining high-quality development as its primary task in building a modern socialist country in all respects.
President Xi Jinping once defined high-quality development as "a shift from pursuing growth to pursuing better growth," illustrating the evolution of the country's economic development from rapid expansion to a focus on quality.
In addition to engaging in meetings and enacting policies, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has pushed forward high-quality development through his inspection tours.
Since the start of the year, he has taken several inspection trips across the country, and made stops at tech companies, research institutes, industrial parks and nature reserves -- locations that indicate focal points crucial for achieving high-quality development.
SCI-TECH INNOVATION
According to Xi, the key to Chinese modernization is the modernization of science and technology.
Xi has frequented prominent players in the field of sci-tech innovation on his inspection trips.
In April, Xi visited GAC Aion New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., a new energy vehicle producer in south China's Guangdong Province. The province is regarded as China's high-tech hub and hosts tech giants such as Huawei and Tencent.
Xi emphasized that core technologies in key fields should be based on independent research and development, and also demanded further support for small and medium-sized enterprises in their innovation endeavors.
During his inspection tour of north China's Hebei Province in May, Xi encouraged sci-tech researchers at an electronics technology research institute to achieve continuous progress in making cutting-edge technology breakthroughs.
During a visit to the Purple Mountain Laboratories' comprehensive 6G lab in east China's Jiangsu Province in July, Xi called for pursuing innovation in a down-to-earth manner to bolster China's self-reliance and strength in high-level sci-tech advancements.
MODERN INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM
China boasts the world's largest and most comprehensive industrial system. It is the leading global producer of over 220 types of industrial products, encompassing all the industrial categories on the United Nations' industrial classification list.
A modern industrial system is the material and technological foundation of a modern country, Xi once stressed. The modernization of the industrial system has been another focus for Xi during his inspection trips.
On multiple occasions, Xi has inspected local initiatives aiming to promote the green transformation of the energy industry and the development of advanced manufacturing.
While inspecting the energy-rich Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in June, Xi said the pursuit of green development is a prerequisite, and it is of utmost importance that Inner Mongolia promotes the transformation and upgrading of traditional energy industries, boosts green energy, and develops itself into a key national energy base.
In southwest China's Sichuan Province in July, Xi urged the construction of a new energy system for the complementary development of various energy resources such as water, wind, solar power, hydrogen and natural gas.
In the provinces of Guangdong and Jiangsu, Xi called for industrial foundations to be advanced, industrial chains to be modernized, and the growth of strategic emerging industries to be fostered.
Xi also stressed that Chinese modernization should not follow the path that leads to the real economy being sidelined, and urged accelerated efforts to develop a modern industrial system supported by the real economy.
ECOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
At a national conference on ecological and environmental protection last month, Xi underscored the significance of supporting high-quality development with a high-quality ecological environment. He stressed the need to accelerate the advancement of modernization featuring harmony between humanity and nature.
Xi is deeply concerned about the ecological conservation and protection of cultural relics in the Yellow River Basin.
During his visits to the provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi in May, Xi said that all provinces and regions within the Yellow River Basin must take the protection of the Yellow River Basin's ecology as the baseline in planning development and promoting high-quality development, and must refrain from doing things that are not conducive to the ecological protection of the Yellow River Basin.
While inspecting the country's largest mangrove nature reserve in Guangdong, Xi referred to mangrove forests as national treasures and said they should be protected with as much care as people take to protect their own eyes.
In Inner Mongolia, Xi visited an afforestation project site and called for continuous efforts to prevent and control desertification, which he described as a long-term historic mission.
Presently, China has the world's largest planted forest area, with its forest coverage rate more than doubling from 12 percent in the early 1980s to 24.02 percent last year.
"We should continue to pursue green development, make unremitting efforts across generations to build a beautiful China, and contribute to the preservation of our global village," Xi has said. ■
