Shaanxi: A Place of Wonders for Many Media

On the morning of March 7, Shaanxi delegation attended the Fifth Session of the 12th National People’s Congress and held a Media Open Day which attracted over a hundred reporters from 56 domestic and foreign media. Their visit to Shaanxi delegation mainly aimed to know the new changes happened to the starting point of the ancient Silk Road. Eight NPC Deputies, namely Hu Heping, Fang Weifeng, Shangguan Jiqing, Ye Yu, Wang Shuguo, Zhou Weijian, Tan Yonghua, and Zhao Jiping, attended the interview together. Since there were too many reporters asking questions, the original one-hour questioning and communication time was extended by over thirty minutes.

At the very start, Hu Heping, NPC Deputy, deputy secretary of Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee, and governor of Shaanxi Province, made a brief introduction of Shaanxi’s social and economic development: “Shaanxi is a wondrous place, which has both a long history and modern charm”, which has attracted people a lot. He introduced Shaanxi from the aspects of historical profundity, red culture, and development situation.

Talking about the construction of free trade zone:

The preparatory work runs smoothly

The free trade zone will be soon unveiled

On August 31 last year, the Party Central Committee and the State Council approved to establish the third batch of Pilot Free Trade Zones, and China (Shaanxi) Free Trade Zone is one of them. Naturally, the construction situation of China (Shaanxi) Free Trade Zone was a high-profile topic of the Media Open Day.

Hu said the positioning of China (Shaanxi) Free Trade Zone is: “Take institutional innovation as the core, take replicable and propagable characters as basic requirements; fully implement the Party Central Committee and the State Council’s requirements on giving better play of the leading role of the “B&R” in west development and strengthening the opening up of gateway cities in the west area, and make full effort to develop China (Shaanxi) Free Trade Zone into the experimental field of comprehensive reform and opening up, and new highland of inland reform and opening up, as well as the significant supporting point of the “B&R” economic cooperation and cultural exchanges.

“According to the national overall plan, China (Shaanxi) Free Trade Zone has three districts: Xi’an Central District, Chanba Port District, and Yangling District. Meanwhile, the district has three innovation characteristics, respectively are: innovate the new connection mechanism with countries along the “B&R”, innovate new capacity cooperation mechanism, and innovate new mechanism of modern agriculture cooperation.” Hu Said, “We also integrate the “B&R” strategy and Free Trade Zone construction together to promote opening up, to build international business logistics center, international science and technology education center, international capacity cooperation center, cultural tourism center, and regional financial center.”

He said, at present stage, various works were in intense and smooth preparations, and the Free Trade Zone was about to be formally started.

Talking about “making our skies blue again”:

Several scientific research achievements on haze treatment will be put into the market.

“Making our skies blue again” was written into the report on the work of the government. Report on the work of the Shaanxi Provincial Government also talked about “Making our skies blue again”. This is not only a goal, but also a responsibility. What effort will Shaanxi make in environmental management and protection?

On this topic, Hu said that Shaanxi would control pollution and reduce haze from six aspects: coal reduction, car control, dust suppression, source treatment, burning ban, and green increasing.

Zhou Weijian, NPC Deputy and academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: “Haze in China has clear seasonality and planar distribution characteristics. The south has little haze, haze in the north mainly happens in winter, and has wide distribution range, complex pollution sources, and changeable forming process.

She introduced some new scientific haze treatment achievements: one is secondary formula multi-fuel clean furnace, which can improve heat conversion rate from 13% of ordinary furnace to 65%, and another is large-sized solar energy urban air cleaning system, which, aiming to solve the pollutant emission increase in the air, removes particulate matter in the air by using solar heat power generation and PM filtration technologies. She said: “In experiment, we found that it can filter 80% of PM2.5, and over 30% of nitric oxide, and can purify 8 million m3’s air every day.”

In addition, Shaanxi also developed small-sized solar energy air cleaning furnace and street lamp integrating solar power generation function and air cleaning function, and put them into market by transformation of scientific research achievement to improve Shaanxi’s air quality.

Talking about supply-side structural reform:

The key task this year is to make up the shortage

When introducing Shaanxi’s provincial conditions, Hu drew the reporters’ attention by two quotations: “Shaanxi has rich energy mineral resources”, and “Last year, Shaanxi cut over 29 million tons of excessive coal capacity. Then, what measures will Shaanxi take in implementing “three cuts, one reduction and one improvement” to promote the supply-side structural reform, and what is the key point?

Fang Weifeng, NPC Deputy and director of Shaanxi Provincial Development and Reform Commission, said that supply-side structural reform was the main economic line of the 13th Five Year Plan and the priority among priorities of all economical work. Last year, Shaanxi made great achievements: Shaanxi fulfilled the steel overcapacity reliving task three years ahead of time, outperformed the coal overcapacity reliving task with 29 million tons achievement, reduced the real estate sale cycle to nine months, especially in Xi’an, and reduced RMB 3.5 billion of cost of all varieties by implementing various policies.

The key work this year is to improve shortage, accelerate developing emerging industries, and form new power and supporting point; boost development of county economy and private economy; intensify ecological construction and take pollution treatment and haze reduction as priority among priorities; keep carrying forward opening-up development, catch the opportunity of Free Trade Zone, advance reform of key fields and key link, and improve development motive force; and further improve people’s livelihood, improve income of urban and rural residents, and enhance employment level.

Talking about culture:

Artists should also have the “spirit of the craftsman”

Shaanxi is a great province in terms of culture, as a maestro from Shaanxi Province, what ideas do you have on Shaanxi’s construction of strong cultural province? How to play a role in firming national culture confidence? It is clear that these questions are for Zhao Jiping, NPC Deputy and honorary president of Chinese Musicians Association.

Zhao said: “The biggest advantage of Shaanxi artists is rooting in the land of Shaanxi, and can draw material both from tradition and life. As an artist, if you want to create wonderful work, you must have basic skills, red “gene” as well as the ability to take material from tradition and life.”

He had led musicians of three generations to the Qinling Mountains area for two years and created a symphony with eight movements. The symphony was played in National Centre for the Performance Arts in this February, but it is still under modification until now. “I think artists should also have the “spirit of the craftsman”, and once you get down to polish it, the work can be more excellent.” Zhao said that he had special preference for Shaanxi, the traditional culture had mixed in his blood, and he had much confidence in Shaanxi culture.

Talking about the Universities Alliance of the New Silk Road:

Paying attention to education is paying attention to the future

There were so many reporter competitively asking questions, and the last reporter asked a question about education. Wang Shuguo, NPC Deputy and president of Xi’an Jiaotong University said with smile: “I was upset since no reporter asked about education just now.” His humor brought some entertainment. He answered the question that what roles do Universities Alliance of the New Silk Road and universities play in the B&R strategy.

He said the B&R was not just a simple economic strategy and economic and trade communion, but China’s responsibility as a great power on the world stage. “No matter the country is strong or weak, big or small, all countries that are willing to join hands with China can join in, this is the new international order and rule of the 21th century, hence it can be supported by so many countries.”

“Over 140 universities joined the Universities Alliance of the New Silk Road established by Xi’an Jiaotong University. This alliance is to implement the B&R strategy, and has drawn strong reaction in the world.” He said, so many universities chose to join the alliance was not because how appealing Xi’an Jiaotong University was, but because the education department of these countries had deep expectation to the B&R strategy.

Wang said that the basis of long and sustainable development of the B&R lies in cultural exchange, in which education plays a great role. Now, Universities Alliance of the New Silk Road had established Law Branch, High and New Tech Branch, Medical Science Branch, and many other branches concerning present development. International Training Centre of Engineering also set up branches and conducted four or five trainings. Young people around the world participated in actively.

“Education concerns the nation’s development, the future, and economic development. Paying attention to education is paying attention to the future; paying attention to future means we are promising.” His answer gained much applause.