CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Tuesday, July 30, 2019 | 9
years on YEARS ON HUNAN
Editor's Note: As the People’s Republic of China prepares to celebrate its 70th anniversary on Oct 1, China Daily is featuring a series of stories on the role regions have played in the country’s development and where they are today. Birthplace of China’s brightest and bravest
By CAI HONG
“When the provinces of Hunan and Hubei have bumper harvests, there is enough food for the whole country,” a Chinese saying goes. Hunan, an inland province in central China, is a land of plenty. It is also the birthplace of some of China’s greatest thinkers, scien tists, military strategists and politi cal leaders. Wei Yuan (17941856), born in Shaoyang, Hunan, was the first Chinese scholar in modern times to open his mind to the outside world. He compiled one of the first Chinese scholarly works on Western technological advances. In his Illustrated Treatise on Sea Powers, Wei began to look at what could be learned from Western seafaring nations. As historian Matthew Mosca argues in his book From Frontier Policy to Foreign Policy: The Question of India and the Trans formation of Geopolitics in Qing The Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit system, the world’s first driverless rapid bus, on a test run in Zhuzhou, Hunan province, in October 2017. The system was developed by China, through his innovative CRRC Zhuzhou Institute. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY approach, “Wei was able to devise an overarching ‘foreign policy’, a program of action connecting all corners of the Qing realm (1644 1911) from the Pacific to Central Asia.” His scholarly work had a pro New member of ‘3 trillion club’ found influence on the reformers that followed him. Zeng Guofan (18111872), also a Hunan native, was a top military commander in the Qing Dynasty. He is known for raising and orga aims to soar higher on global stage nizing the Xiang Army to assist the Qing military in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion, a revolt Building on its traditional manufacturing strengths by nurturing hightech industries, against the Qing. Zeng was a pioneer in foreign the province is spearheading the ‘Made in China’ blueprint affairs, making the development of foreign weapons a priority. In 1861, he built an ordnance factory By CAI HONG Area: 211,800 square kilometers Annual per capita disposable class industrial cluster, improve the in Anqing, Anhui province, to [email protected] income of urban residents 36,698 level of intelligent manufacturing pilot the production of foreign Unit: yuan ($5,335) and enhance the competitiveness of guns, cannons and ships. 2018 68.99 Earlier this year, China’s major 40000 2018 enterprises. “We invite leading Chairman Mao Zedong was train manufacturer, CRRC Zhuzhou 35000 26,570 enterprises in construction equip born in 1893 in Shaoshan, which Changsha 30000 2014 Locomotive, tested a new genera 25000 13,821 ment and key components to invest has become one of the country’s tion maglev train to see if it could 20000 7,674 2008 and develop in Hunan so that we most popular tourist spots. 15000 5,815 reach its projected top speed of 160 Hunan 2003 can jointly overcome core techno Mao, who spent his childhood 10000 1998 kilometers per hour, about 60 per 5000 logical difficulties and explore the in Shaoshan, went on to join and cent faster than the current model. 2010 65.68 0 international market,” Xu said. lead the Communist Party of Chi The new mediumspeed model, Annual per capita disposable At the HunanUK Future Innova na, and play a central role in the which was tested in Changsha, Hu tion Summit in Changsha in March, founding of the People’s Republic income of rural residents 14,093 nan province, has 30 percent more Unit: yuan ($2,049) Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese ambassa of China in 1949. traction and can carry an additional 6 dor to the United Kingdom, said a After Mao died in 1976, his 15000 2018 metric tons, compared with the previ Population GDP 10,060 growing number of companies from former residence in Shaoshan ous generation, said Tong Laisheng, Unit: million Unit: billion yuan 12000 2014 Hunan are exploring opportunities was opened to the public and 2000 64.40 head of the maglev research institute 9000 4,513 for more cooperation with the UK in became a major tourist destina
6000 2,472 2008 of CRRC Zhuzhou. 2,145 science, technology and innovation. tion. 2003 China’s first mediumlowspeed 3000 1998 The CRRC Zhuzhou Institute has maglev rail line started commercial established research and develop 0 operation in Changsha in May 2016. 3,642.58 ment centers for semiconductor The new model is expected to lay the ($529.56 billion) and electric drive technology in the 2018 foundation for the introduction of 1982 54.01 1,305.97 UK, according to Liu. mediumspeed maglev train sys 2009 He said Xiangtan Electric Manu tems, Tong said. 302.55 facturing is working with Garrad CRRC Zhuzhou is also developing 1998 Hassan and Partners on the develop a more advanced maglev model ment of directdrive turbines for with a top speed of 200 km/h. 14.70 lowspeed wind conditions. 1978 Hunan, where CRRC Zhuzhou 1953 33.23 Luo Shuangfeng, deputy director Yuan Longping is dubbed the Locomotive is headquartered, 2.78 of the provincial Commerce “Father of Hybrid Rice”. rolled out an innovationdriven 1952 Department, said Hunan has pro strategy in 2016, but is now aiming duced more competitive products for even faster growth. Source: Hunan Provincial Government MUKESH MOHANAN / CHINA DAILY in recent years after industrial Yuan Longping, born in Qing Once a lessdeveloped province restructuring. yang in 1930, is an agriculturalist with a population of nearly 70 mil Meanwhile, a batch of hightech who devoted himself to agricul lion, it is now spearheading the Its GDP grew to 3.64 trillion yuan manufacturing industry and put it launched a test zone for connected enterprises that chose to set up tural education and research aft “Made in China” blueprint and striv last year, according to the provincial on the path to highquality develop intelligent vehicles. branches in Hunan has brought er graduating from college. ing to establish an integrated intelli authorities. ment. new impetus to the province’s for He was the first person in the gent manufacturing center. The province is home to eight “The Hunan government has Emerging tech eign trade growth. The import and world to develop a hybrid rice Hunan’s strategy is to upgrade national hightech zones and a host enacted a series of measures to pro Electric vehicle manufacturing is export volume of Hunan province strain, and his research achieve traditional industries with stateof of technology companies, such as mote the use of technology in tradi already one of the largest industries surpassed 310 billion yuan last year, ments in developing higher rice theart technology while nurturing Zoomlion, CRRC Zhuzhou and tional industries. Going forward, we in the province, which has a yearonyear increase of over 28 yields helped provide a solution new economy enterprises, such as Hunan Boyun New Materials. The will put more effort into the better embraced the use of emerging tech percent, according to Commerce to worldwide hunger and starva 5G telecoms, the internet of things, added value of hightech industries ment of industrial chains in sectors nologies so much that Hunan Department data. tion. 3D printing and robotics. in Hunan reached 846.8 billion like vehicle manufacturing, steel, accounts for over 20 percent of glob Private enterprises played a big He has received many interna Du Jiahao, secretary of the pro yuan last year, up 14 percent from nonferrous metals and others,” Xu al production. There are 13 new role in the province’s foreign trade, tional awards, including the vincial committee of the Commu 2017. said. energy vehicle manufacturers in the accounting for 68.1 percent of the Gold Medal Award for the Out nist Party of China, calls innovation Hunan is aiming for a GDP In recent years, Hunan has made province, with annual output total volume, up 1.1 percentage standing Inventor of the UN and openingup the “two wings” growth rate of 7.5 percent to 8 per great efforts to encourage innova exceeding 50,000 units. points compared with 2017. World Intellectual Property that can help Hunan’s economy cent this year. tion in industrial development. It is Like other parts of China, Hunan The growth can be attributed to Organization and UNESCO’s Sci soar. “As a province in central China, Delivering his work report at the the birthplace of many hightech, has a “go global” strategy. an improved trade structure and ence Prize. Hunan has its traditional advantage annual session of the provincial peo innovative products that count Hunan’s technology enterprises foreign trade environment, and Yuan and his team successfully in manufacturing,” Du said. “But in ple’s congress in January, Hunan among the world’s best. These and universities signed nine invest cooperation with countries developed technologies for pro recent years our engineering Governor Xu Dazhe said the pro include the fastest electric train ment projects with their Hong involved in the Belt and Road Initia ducing indica (longgrained non machinery, electronic information, vince wants to accelerate the growth traction system, the longest con Kong partners in April. tive routes, Luo said. glutinous) rice, helping China biopharmaceutical, new energy and of new and promising industries — crete pump, the strongest crawler “We hope to work closely with Zhou Dunyi, a philosopher who become the world’s leading rice new equipment have also seen nota such as biological medicine and crane, the most powerful sixaxle Hong Kong and other cities in the lived in Hunan 1,000 years ago, said producer. ble growth.” energy conservation — and also electric locomotive and Tianhe1, GuangdongHong KongMacao that knowing the trends of the For this achievement, Yuan Du added that the moment is ripe press for upgrades in traditional the world’s fastest supercomputer. Greater Bay Area in the fields of times leads to success. was dubbed the “Father of for the province to make the shift. industries such as steel, construc More than 100,000 companies in technology and innovation, resour “In today’s world, innovation is Hybrid Rice”. Hunan joined the “3 trillion” club tion and food processing. Hunan had adopted cloud comput ces, projects, talent and platforms,” the way to development, and coop In 1979, the technique for pro in 2017 after its GDP hit nearly 3.46 Its 2019 development plan also ing technologies by the end of last said Luo Jianjun, counsel of the eration can lead to winwin results. ducing hybrid rice was intro trillion yuan ($502 billion) — the includes adding 1,000 hightech year, while nearly 1,000 internet General Office of the People’s Gov This is the irreversible trend,” Liu, duced to the United States, the ninthlargest regional economy in enterprises. companies were incubated in the ernment of Hunan Province. the ambassador, said. first case of intellectual property China, according to the Internation Xu said the techsavvy approach province’s 90 bigdata industrial Xu, the governor, said the prov Hunan is leaping ahead with the rights transfer in the history of al Monetary Fund. has helped energize the province’s parks. In addition, Hunan has also ince is striving to build a world times. New China.