International

Xi Jinping urges China to become more self-reliant during tour of southern manufacturing hub

04/11/2018

Chinese president says manufacturing is key to making country strong -First public comments on visit to Guangdong stress need to develop its own technology

By He Huifeng
23 October, 2018

Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that China must become “self-reliant”, state media reported, as he toured the country’s manufacturing hub.

Xi arrived in the southern province of Guangdong on Monday, and visited the precision moulding plant and a key laboratory at Gree Electric Appliances in Zhuhai, one of the country’s biggest manufacturers.

There he said the country must develop its manufacturing industry and technology to become a “strong” country, according to People’s Daily, the official Communist Party mouthpiece. “To go from a big country to a strong one, we must give paramount importance to the development of the real economy,” Xi said in his first official comments during the visit. “Manufacturing is a key to the real economy, and the core strength of manufacturing is innovation, or the control of core technologies. “We must … seek innovation by relying on ourselves, and I hope all enterprises will work in this direction.”

The Guangdong visit comes amid the escalating trade war with the United States and slowing economic growth.