China's "dual circulation" development paradigm, an important approach in China's latest medium and long-term economic and social development plan, has attracted great attention at home and abroad since it was first put forward last year.
It's a strategy featuring domestic and overseas markets reinforcing each other with the domestic market as the mainstay. Chinese President Xi Jinping, on many occasions, has explained how China will implement the strategy and achieve high-quality development.
In his recently concluded four-day inspection trip to southeast China's Fujian Province, the exact connotation of the development pattern was further expounded.
High-quality development
After listening to a work report from the provincial government on Thursday morning, Xi said he hopes Fujian will make new achievements in promoting high-quality development in an all-round way.
To promote high-quality development, implementing the new development philosophy in a complete, accurate and comprehensive way must be conducted first, he said, stressing the optimization and the upgrading of the industrial structure, innovation, and ecological environment.
During his visit to RICOM, an optical lens company, Xi underscored the importance of independent innovation. "Following the pack cannot help us make remarkable progress," he told employees at the company as he urged workers to be "pioneers of innovation."
"We can only be in the front rank of scientific and technological development through innovation, as following others will not work," he said. "We must accelerate our pace to achieve self-reliance in science and technology."
Rural revitalization
Several important requirements for the new development paradigm, such as advancing rural revitalization, cultivating and developing characteristic industries, and green development were also highlighted in Xi's inspection tour.
Under China's development blueprint, the country will push the development of industries with distinctive rural characteristics, cultivate new industries and modes of business, and encourage entrepreneurship and innovation in rural areas.
"In the past, the tea industry was a pillar in your fight against poverty, and it should become a pillar industry of rural vitalization in the future," Xi said on Monday at an ecological tea garden, calling for efforts to better cultivate a vibrant tea industry.
On the same day, he visited the Wuyishan National Park, one of the pioneers in piloting the national park system, showing his commitment to green, ecological development.
The aim of building a system of nature reserves centering on national parks is to keep the ecosystem intact and protect biodiversity, Xi said.
Improvement of the quality of people's lives
Calling for the country to take "a solid first step" in building the new development paradigm in 2021, the key Central Economic Work Conference in December underlined the need to fully tap the potential of the domestic market, and expand consumption and effective investment that are oriented toward improving people's livelihoods.
Xi's inspection also echoed several aspects in this regard, such as optimizing the basic public service system, deepening education reform, and promoting the high-quality development of public hospitals.
Visiting the Shaxian District of Sanming City on Tuesday, Xi went to a hospital to learn about local reform of the medical and healthcare system, and put forward ardent hopes for the development of the Shaxian Snacks trademark, which has been approved by eight countries.
While inspecting the provincial capital of Fuzhou on Wednesday, Xi called for continued efforts to make the city a better place and to deliver more benefits to the people.
Inspecting the Fuzhou-based Minjiang University on Thursday morning, Xi said at a square on the campus that young Chinese bear the responsibility of realizing national rejuvenation, calling on students to actively devote themselves to building a modern socialist China.