China’s Xi Jinping pushes hi-tech message during visit to science city in once-poor Hefei

Science and technology should lead the modernisation of China, President Xi Jinping emphasised, as he gave a fresh push to innovation in the southeastern hi-tech hub of Hefei earlier this week.

“To advance modernisation in the Chinese style, science and technology must take the lead, with technological innovation being the necessary path to follow,” Xi said during a visit on Thursday to Hefei Binhu Science City, a flagship research and innovation hub in the Anhui provincial capital.

“Hi-tech development cannot be begged for; we must accelerate the realisation of high-level technological self-reliance and self-improvement,” state news agency Xinhua quoted Xi as saying during the visit, which was part of an inspection trip to the province.

Xi also urged Anhui to continue to enhance its role as a significant centre for technological innovation, a hub for emerging industries, a new high ground for reform and opening up, and as a region pursuing comprehensive green transformation in economic and social development.

Xi’s remarks come as China doubles down on technological advancements amid a strategic shift towards what it calls “new quality productive forces”, away from the previous export-oriented growth model, and a prolonged tech war with the United States, which has sought to curb China’s hi-tech access.

Hefei, once an impoverished eastern backwater, has emerged as a poster child of the new sci-tech push, transformed by local authorities into a powerhouse for innovation.