Song Tao, Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, delivers a keynote speech at the session on May 25

Spicy crayfish has many diehard fans In Beijing. People wait in line for more than two hours or more at Huda Restaurant, renowned for its spicy crayfish. But do you know where all those crayfish come from?

Huang Jianxiong, Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Qianjiang City Committee, told Beijing Review at a recent seminar in Beijing that as a result of its successful comprehensive agricultural supply-side reform, Qianjiang in central China’s Hubei Province produces over 35 percent of the crayfish in China and exports $300 million worth of the creature every year.

The seminar, part of a promotional event of Hubei’s reform practices, was held on May 25 by the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, together with the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee, to introduce the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee’s efforts in supply-side structural reform. During the seminar, the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee introduced its implementation of President Xi Jinping’s new governance ideologies, especially on supply-side structural reform.

Jiang Chaoliang, Secretary of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee, introduces Hubei’s efforts in supply-side structural reform

Song Tao, Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, made a keynote speech at the seminar, while Jiang Chaoliang, Secretary of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee, delivered the introduction on behalf of the committee to an audience made up of 400 foreign political figures, senior diplomats in China and representatives of international organizations, including visiting delegations from India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Laos, Tunisia and Tanzania.

Song said supply-side structural reform is an important economic theory and a major innovation by President Xi. While aimed at settling the new challenges facing China’s economy, it will secure medium-to-high-speed economic growth and push forward industrial upgrading. Multiple provinces and cities have put Xi’s idea into practice and reaped positive results.

How to tackle economic difficulties and restore economic vitality is a hot topic in communication between political parties, according to Song. For political parties worldwide, the key to achieving a successful economic policy hinges on facilitating reforms that cater to national conditions and that have external effects on the development of neighboring countries and the world as a whole, rather than only benefiting the country itself.

“Supply-side structural reform is not simply a stimulus policy or a shortcut to temporary high-speed growth. It was born with a view to finding a path of structural reform to achieve long-term win-win cooperation between China and its neighboring economies,” Song said.

He added that the CPC is bold enough to face challenges. It has taken action to break down the institutional barriers which hinder development, transform the economic development mode and optimize the economic structure. The CPC is actively pushing efforts to cut excessive industrial capacity, destock, de-leverage, lower corporate costs and improve weak areas of the economy to cultivate new growth drivers, expand effective demand, liberate productivity and rejuvenate the economy.

The CPC sticks to a mutually beneficial opening-up strategy, according to Song. Through proposing and facilitating the concepts of innovation, coordination, green development, opening up and sharing, China is contributing its solution to the building of an open world economy and a new type of globalization.

Tawfiq Tirawi, Palestinian Fatah Central Committee member, makes a speech

Jiang said the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee’s accomplishments are the result of thoroughly implementing the policies formulated by the CPC Central Committee with Xi as its core. Hubei took it as an opportunity to upgrade its economic structure and conduct reforms in accordance with its own reality, he noted.

“The CPC’s political, ideological and organizational leadership ensures the success of Hubei’s supply-side structural reform. The accomplishments are obvious. We have upgraded the economic structure, cultivated new drivers for growth, pushed forward green development, and improved the living standards of urban and rural residents,” Jiang said.

Jiang mentioned the case of how Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp. (WISCO) in China's iron and steel industry was shackled by problems deriving from overcapacity over the past years, triggering a plunge in the price of steel products. WISCO achieved successful transformation through merging with Baosteel in 2017. Some 40,000 workers of WISCO were relocated during the process.

“The accomplishments are obvious. We have upgraded the economic structure, cultivated new drivers for growth, pushed forward green development, and improved the living standards of urban and rural residents,” Jiang said.

Zinaida Greceani, Chairwoman of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova, delivers a speech

Tawfiq Tirawi, Palestinian Fatah Central Committee member, Zinaida Greceani, Chairwoman of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova, and Bert Hofman, World Bank Country Director for China, also delivered speeches at the seminar. According to them, the CPC is able to face challenges in development, propose targeted solutions, and carry them out in practice. In this case, the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee has achieved a lot in conducting supply-side structural reform. Advancement of the reform will help China unleash its innovation vitality and transform its economy, as well as promote international cooperation.

The promotional event also consisted of two sub-seminars. At a seminar themed “Hubei’s Stories of Green Development in Building the Yangtze River Economic Belt,” officials from CPC communities of Wuhan, Huangshi, Qianjiang and Honghu briefed foreign guests about the four cities’ efforts to protect the eco-environment of the Yangtze River and achieve green growth. A representative of the CPC Xiantao City Committee introduced his city’s supply-side structural reform at another sub-seminar themed “Practices of the CPC Xiantao City Committee.”

CPC committees of Hubei province at all levels have made active explorations in promoting supply-side structural reform and green development of the Yangtze Economic Belt. Innovative development has been promoted in the Donghu Hi-Tech Development Zone in Wuhan. Huangshi has successfully gone through the transformation of a resource-dependent city. Qianjiang has further developed the industry of crayfish breeding. The total area of crayfish farms exceeds 33,000 hectares, creating over 100,000 jobs and helping 20,000 people escape poverty. Honghu boasts 102 lakes and has restored its water environment through the conversion of fisheries into lakes.

 Participators watch the presentation of a laptop computer

A participator interacts with a robot in Hi-tech product show

Foreign guests were impressed by the cities’ efforts. After the sub-seminars, many of them expressed interest in Qianjiang’s crayfish breeding techniques and Xiantao’s selenium-rich rice.

Together with the activities, photo exhibitions and hi-tech product shows were held to enable attendees to understand better how Hubei has conducted supply-side structural reform and made significant achievements.

The “Stories of the CPC” series of events focuses on introducing local CPC committees’ work in implementing major strategic policies made by the CPC Central Committee with Xi as its core, to better explain Xi’s new governance thoughts to the international community.

The “Stories of the CPC’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation” event, the first in the series, was held in Beijing on April 27. The International Department of the CPC Central Committee will work with the CPC Shanxi and Jiangsu provincial committees to hold promotional events in the coming months.

A foreign guest asks questions to Song Tao and Jiang Chaoliang