Governance of, support for border areas stressed

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has stressed enhancing governance and boosting high-quality development in the country's border areas, saying that China will leave no border region behind as it advances Chinese modernization.

When presiding over a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on Monday, Xi said that modernizing the system and capacity for governance in these areas is an integral part of Chinese modernization and urged efforts to incorporate development in these areas into China's major strategies.

Compared with the country's developed regions, its border areas, consisting of both land-border and sea-border areas, are relatively less developed, but they enjoy unique geographical advantages.

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012, the CPC Central Committee has made a series of major proposals such as "to govern the country well, we must first govern the frontiers well" and "raise local living standards, and ensure local stability", leading to historic achievements and changes in border governance.

Xi emphasized on Monday the country's commitment to supporting border areas in leveraging their unique advantages to achieve high-quality development, as they integrate into the forming of a new development pattern and the building of a unified national market.

He urged border areas to increase the momentum and vitality of development through reform and opening-up, and take advantage of their coastal and frontier locations to build themselves into pacesetters for opening-up.

Observers said it was the first time that the Party leadership has raised the idea of modernizing the system and capacity for governance in border areas since China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) stated that efforts should be made to modernize the country's system and capacity for governance.

Border areas are home to 20 percent of China's population, and most of these areas are inhabited by ethnic minorities.

Xi underscored at the session the need to pursue urban-rural integrated development and ensure and improve the people's well-being in the course of pursuing development in border areas. The achievements in poverty alleviation must be consolidated to see that no large-scale return to poverty occurs, he added.

Noting that forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation should be the focus of work related to border areas, Xi also highlighted the necessity of comprehensively promoting standard spoken and written Chinese and the use of unified State-compiled textbooks.

Xi said that it is essential to prioritize national security and social stability as the bottom-line requirement for governance in border areas and urged efforts to enhance the efficiency of governance in these areas.

He stressed promoting infrastructure construction in border areas and strengthening technological empowerment to improve the areas' overall capability of defending the border and safeguarding the country.

Xing Guangcheng, director of the Institute of Chinese Borderland Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that border areas play a crucial role in the joint building of the Belt and Road, adding that the high-quality development of these areas will further boost the connectivity between China and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. Such opening-up efforts will also benefit these areas, Xing noted.