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Mia Nurmamat

During a visit to the southwestern province of Guizhou – one of China’s poorest and most indebted areas – President Xi Jinping called for the region to undertake an accelerated economic transition, improve its business climate and better integrate with the country’s other local economies.
The president's inspection tour to the mountainous province on Monday and Tuesday – his first after the conclusion of the annual legislative session – also represents a commitment to maintain the country's fight against poverty, analysts said.
Unlike the eastern and coastal regions that are being incentivised by state policies to spearhead China’s tech innovation, less well-off provinces such as Guizhou have been encouraged to play to their strengths by specialising in modern, efficient mountain agriculture and building other competitive industries.
The tour follows a meeting between Xi and representatives from Jiangsu province, one of China’s wealthiest, where the president urged officials to take the lead in regional integration and coordinated development.
Guizhou’s per-capita gross domestic product was ranked fourth-lowest among the country’s provincial-level jurisdictions. Several of its counties were the last to be removed from the national register of impoverished localities in 2020, the year China declared victory over absolute poverty.
It has also become a symbol for the country’s lingering local government debt burden, as falling revenue from land sales and tax collections limits officials’ capacity to raise funds. By the end of 2023, the Guizhou government’s outstanding debt accounted for 72 per cent of the region’s GDP, well above the 60 per cent standard set by Beijing.
But with assets like the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope – the world’s second-largest single-dish radio telescope – a national big data centre, and data facilities for Apple, Huawei Technologies and Tencent, the province also carries strategic importance.
“We need to grow the middle class through industrial development and set up a unified system to track, classify and support low-income rural populations, making sure they maintain a basic standard of living,” Xi said, according to state news agency Xinhua.


Support for low-income groups was a major policy plank at the recently concluded “two sessions”, the annual meeting of the national legislature and top political advisory body.
This year’s government work report, unveiled at the sessions, featured pledges to boost incomes and ease financial burdens on low- and middle-income households – part of a broader effort to spur consumer spending and offset the impact of US tariffs on the economy.
“Xi’s visit is signalling his ambition for poverty alleviation, including preventing people from slipping back into poverty and driving wealth creation projects,” said Peng Peng, executive chairman of the Guangdong Society of Reform, a think tank affiliated with the Guangdong provincial government.
“It also demonstrates his commitment to achieving Chinese-style modernisation by 2035, as the major challenges lie in the underdeveloped regions,” Peng said. He noted that many parts of southwest China, particularly areas on the border between Guizhou and Guangxi, remain deeply impoverished.
In the Xinhua report, Xi called on Guizhou to eliminate local protectionism, market fragmentation and neijuan – a Chinese term used to describe excessive competition among enterprises. He also emphasised the need to foster a fair, transparent and predictable business environment for the private sector.
For the first time, this year’s work report included a call to curb neijuan. Among many efforts being taken to curb this damaging trend, companies are cutting back on overtime and high schools are adopting two-day weekends.
Xi also highlighted the importance of developing strategic emerging industries alongside the real economy, focusing on the digital economy and new energy.
He called for greater commercial openness in Guizhou and stronger integration with the neighbouring Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area and the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Belt, whose combined economic output account for more than one-fifth of the country’s total.
“Guizhou’s big data sector and agricultural industry align well with the needs of Guangdong, a major financial powerhouse in the Greater Bay Area,” Peng said. “The province also needs a trade outlet, making deeper cooperation with these economic zones essential.”


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On his first inspection tour since the national legislative session, China’s president said the relatively underdeveloped province should build ties with other regions


On his first inspection tour since the national legislative session, China’s president said the relatively underdeveloped province should build ties with other regions.
