China seeks to boost rust-belt province as a ‘golden place’ for technology development

Vice-Premier Liu He and top economic policymakers headed to Liaoning province this week to solicit opinions on the region’s next stage of development

A previous revitalisation plan for the economically struggling rust-belt region in 2003 failed to lift the region out of its economic doldrums

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Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He visited Liaoning province this week, joined by Beijing’s top economic policymakers. Photo: AP

Published: 7:15pm, 19 Mar 2021Updated: 7:15pm, 19 Mar 2021

Beijing is once again upping the ante on its bet that it can revitalise northeast China’s rust-belt industrial base in line with the central government’s push to promote technological self-sufficiency in its own backyard.

Greater government support for the region is on the cards after Vice-Premier Liu He held meetings earlier this week with local cadres, technology experts and entrepreneurs in Liaoning province, soliciting their opinions on the region’s next stage of development.

Economically, Liaoning’s economy ranked 15th-largest among China’s 31 provincial-level jurisdictions last year. Its gross domestic product, equivalent in size to Norway’s, grew only 0.6 per cent in 2020 – lower than the national economic growth of 2.3 per cent.

But because Liaoning shares a border with North Korea, is part of China’s top corn-producing region, and is home to a series of state-owned defence industry giants – from Avic Shenyang Aircraft Co that produces Chinese fighter jets to Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co, which built the country’s first aircraft carrier – the province is receiving increased attention from Beijing after the unveiling of the country’s new five-year plan for 2021-25.

China has repeatedly complained that it is being strangled by the United States on a number of technological fronts, and so Beijing is now turning its attention toward developing its domestic market and home-grown technologies as part of its ambitious dual-circulation strategy.

“Liaoning is China’s most important industrial and agricultural base,” Liu said in a government statement released on Wednesday. “It is strategically important to national defence, grain, ecological, energy and industrial security.

“It sits in a golden place for economic development.”