BEIJING: This year, legislators from Jiangsu province are set to welcome an important fellow deputy, President Xi Jinping, to their deliberations at the first session of the 14th National People’s Congress, the nation’s top legislature, which opens in Beijing on Sunday.
Analysts said Xi’s election in Jiangsu as a deputy to the 14th NPC reflects the emphasis from the nation’s top leadership on advancing the Chinese path to modernization, furthering the integrated growth of the Yangtze River Delta and ensuring self-reliance in science and technology. Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, was elected by a unanimous vote as a deputy to the NPC at the first session of the 14th Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress in January.
Jiangsu, with a population of 85.15 million by the end of last year, has long been one of China’s manufacturing hubs and powerhouses for international trade. The province’s GDP, which reached 12.29 trillion yuan ($1.78 trillion) in 2022, took up one-tenth of the nation’s total, with its foreign trade volume accounting for 12.9 percent of the national total.
Fan Conglai, director of the Yangtze River Delta Economics and Social Development Research Center at Nanjing University, said Xi’s unanimous election in Jiangsu to the top legislature epitomized his high level of public support in the province.
“It also showed a high level of expectations from the top leadership for the province to take the lead in exploring the Chinese path to modernization and promoting high-quality growth,” he said. Xi set out a broad vision for China to move toward building itself into a modern socialist nation at the 20th CPC National Congress in October, highlighting the need to follow a Chinese path to modernization, a vision that involves common prosperity for all, harmony between humanity and nature, and peaceful development.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
