SHANGHAI: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday inspected the command office for the East China Sea area of the China Coast Guard under the People’s Armed Police Force.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, stressed improving the capability of protecting maritime rights and carrying out maritime law enforcement.
He heard a briefing about the work of the command office and watched coast guard vessels carrying out their missions via video link. Xi stressed effective maritime law enforcement and resolute protection of China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.
Efforts should be made to improve the mechanism of coordination in maritime law enforcement, crack down on offshore crimes, safeguard the sound development of the marine economy, engage in international exchanges and cooperation in maritime law enforcement, and actively take part in international and regional ocean governance, he said.
Xi also urged solid efforts to raise the level of command office building and stressed the need to comprehensively strengthen Party building to ensure political integrity.
Senior military official He Weidong took part in the inspection.Earlier, The Yangtze River Delta, one of the most vibrant, open and innovative city clusters in China, has reaped major benefits and matured into a pacesetter of high-quality development from its integrated development — which was elevated as a national strategy by Chinese President Xi Jinping five years ago.
Originating on the Qinghi-Tibet Plateau, the Yangtze River is China’s longest waterway, running more than 6,300 km through 11 provincial-level regions before flowing into the East China Sea.
A number of the country’s economic powerhouses, megacities and major rice-producing areas are located along the river basin, making the Yangtze River Delta region, encompassing the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui and Shanghai Municipality, a dynamic growth engine for the world’s second-largest economy.
With insight into the great potential of the region’s coordinated development, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, announced the decision to make the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region a national strategy in November 2018.
“We will make it a national strategy and implement our new development philosophy in real earnest. We will build a modern economic system, and adopt higher standards for reform and opening-up,” Xi said while addressing the opening ceremony of the First China International Import Expo in Shanghai five years ago. He added that the region will develop in tandem with the Belt and Road Initiative, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development area, the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and will help improve the overall layout of China’s reform and opening-up. –Agencies
