'Red Genes' Drive Sichuan Forward
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CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Thursday, June 10, 2021 | 5 PATH TO GLORY SICHUAN Editor’s note: This year, the Communist Party of China is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding. China Daily is publishing a series of stories looking at the tremendous changes that have occurred in provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities under the leadership of the Party. They also include stories of the people and places that have left indelible marks in the Party’s path to glory. The Sanxingdui Museum in Guanghan, Sichuan province. The venue mainly displays exhibits discovered at the Sanxingdui Ruins, a nearby archaeological site of the ancient Shu civilization some 2,800 to 4,800 years ago. The civilization is known for its peculiar-shaped bronze and golden masks, among other ivory and bronze ware. YU JIA / FOR CHINA DAILY ‘Red genes’ drive Sichuan forward Southwest province using innovation to propel it to its goal of establishing a well-off society SICHUAN By Huang ZHiling in Chengdu provincial capital of Chengdu to be spirit of struggle, Sichuan’s GDP 8.9 percent and 10.4 percent, respec- Population: 83.67 million [email protected] executed with a thousand sword slash- increased from 2.39 trillion yuan in tively, Peng said. Area: 486,000 square kilometers es. 2012 to 4.86 trillion yuan ($760 bil- Sichuan has enhanced exchanges outhwest China’s Sichuan When the Red Army came to the lion) last year, and the goal of building and cooperation with countries and province is a hot land full of Dadu that same month 72 years later, a well-off society in an all-around way regions along the Belt and Road Initia- the “Red genes” and the revo- the current was too swift, and the is in sight, according to Peng. tive, and 364 Fortune 500 firms have lutionary spirit. progress of ferrying the soldiers in Sichuan has treated innovation as landed in the province, he said. SSichuan people have inherited the four boats was too slow. the first driving force, planning and Sichuan’s total import and export Sichuan genes and the spirit of struggle to pro- The Red Army soldiers marched an building the Western (Chengdu) Sci- volume has had a two-digit growth for mote all-around high-quality develop- exhausting 120 kilometers in a single ence City and the Science and Technol- four consecutive years. It is accelerat- ment, said Peng Qinghua, secretary of day on May 28, 1935. At 6 am the next ogy Innovation Demonstration Area ing its transformation from the hinter- the Sichuan Provincial Committee of day, they reached the west bank of the of China (Mianyang) Science and land to the frontier of opening up to the Communist Party of China. Luding Bridge on the Dadu and found Technology City with high standards. the outside world, he said. During the epic Long March in the the planks had been removed by It has started the establishment of the According to Liu Xiangchao, an offi- GDP of Sichuan 1930s, CPC-led Red Army soldiers Kuomintang troops, with only 13 iron Tianfu Laboratory to promote close cial with the Sichuan Provincial Unit: trillion yuan climbed many dangerous snow- chains remaining. integration of science and technology Department of Commerce, the prov- 4.64 4.86 4.29 capped mountains and walked across Under the cover of cannons and and the economy, Peng said. ince’s total import and export volume 3.79 the equally treacherous wetland in machine guns, 22 soldiers accom- The contribution rate of science and skyrocketed from about $100 million 3.31 Sichuan, leaving behind stories of plished what had originally appeared technology to Sichuan’s economic in 1981, soon after China adopted its heroism. to be an impossible mission. They growth rose from 48.9 percent in 2012 reform and opening-up policy, to $117 Crossing the Dadu Bridge on the clung to the iron chains of the bridge, to 60 percent last year, he said. billion in 2020. Dadu River in Sichuan was to be one of laying planks on it under intense Sichuan has continued to narrow Sichuan has been dedicated to the 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 the most critical actions of the Long machine-gun fire from Kuomintang the economic development gap construction of ecological barriers in March. troops on the other side of the bridge. between different regions and the upper reaches of the Yangtze and Total value of imports Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai- With several soldiers becoming between urban and rural areas. Yellow rivers, and it has implemented and exports shek had hoped the Red Army would injured and falling into the ferocious Using the construction of the major projects for protecting and Unit: billion yuan repeat the tragedy of Shi Dakai by the river, they crawled ahead on the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle repairing important ecosystems. river. 808.2 planks they had laid, firing gunshots as strategic guidance, the province has It has also developed its green low- 676.6 Shi, one of the brilliant generals of and launching a torrent of grenades accelerated development of the carbon circular economy. Its forest 594.8 the Taiping Rebellion that severely until they finally took control of the Chengdu Plain, Southern Sichuan, 460.6 coverage rate increased from 35.3 per- 326.3 shook the rule of the Qing Dynasty east bank. Northeast Sichuan and Panxi econom- cent in 2012 to 40 percent in 2020, (1644-1911), China’s last feudal dynas- When Mao Zedong met Edgar Snow ic zones, as well as the Northwest Peng said. ty, reached the river with his soldiers — the journalist from the United States Sichuan Ecological Demonstration Lying in the upper reaches of the in May 1863. who wrote the book Red Star over Chi- Zone. Moreover, its urbanization rate Yangtze, Sichuan is the hometown of 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Due to a sudden surge in the water na — in Yan’an, Shaanxi province, in of permanent residents increased former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, Source: Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Statistics level of the Dadu caused by a rain- 1936, Mao said the Red Army’s crossing from 43.5 percent in 2012 to 55 per- chief architect of China’s reform and CHINA DAILY storm, Shi and his men were blocked of the Dadu was the most important cent last year. opening-up policy. Covering 486,000 in the south of the river and surround- event in the Long March. Sichuan considers poverty allevia- sq km, the province makes up 5.1 per- ed by Qing soldiers. To save his sol- If the crossing had failed, the Red tion to be its greatest political responsi- cent of the nation’s total area. diers from death, he went to the Qing Army might have been wiped out, he bility and livelihood project, with 6.25 In addition, the overwhelming major- military camp, pledging to sacrifice said. million rural poor people being lifted ity of China’s pandas are in Sichuan, and his own life. Surrounded with mountains, Sichuan out of poverty, and 88 counties having archaeologists at the Sanxingdui Ruins While 4,000 Taiping soldiers were was inaccessible in ancient times, and bucked their poverty-stricken titles. in Guanghan have unearthed alien-like disbanded and sent away by the Qing its people have been known for endur- From 2012 to last year, the annual bronze ware providing rare resources military, some 2,000 were killed, and ing hardship. average growth rate of urban and rural for those researching the Bronze Age Shi himself was sent to the Sichuan Thanks to the “Red genes” and the residents’ income in the province was culture in China..