Looking at the grand strategy of East-West cooperation, from a school

From the hinterland of the Three Rivers to the banks of the Huangshui River, the children of the Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture have a new school in Xining - the Golog Xining National Middle School. With the assistance of Shanghai, this school was built specifically to solve the problem of schooling difficulties for children in the farming and pastoral areas of Golog Prefecture.

On the afternoon of June 18, 2024, General Secretary Xi Jinping, who was inspecting Qinghai, came to Golog Xining National Middle School to learn about the local efforts to promote east-west cooperation and targeted support in education.

Half a month ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping wrote back to the students of Zhijiang Primary School in Jialing District, Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, recalling the scene of laying the foundation stone for the school 20 years ago. The school was relocated and rebuilt with the assistance of Zhejiang Province.

The two schools, carrying friendships across thousands of miles and lighting up the dreams of children in the west, are all due to the grand strategy of East-West cooperation.

"Carrying out East-West cooperation and targeted assistance is a major decision made by the Party Central Committee with a view to promoting regional coordinated development and promoting common prosperity." In 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping issued important instructions on deepening East-West cooperation and targeted assistance.

From the launch of the East-West Poverty Alleviation Cooperation in 1996 to its expansion and upgrading to East-West Cooperation in the new era; from "giving money and materials" to the formation of a multi-level, multi-form, and all-round cooperation pattern, more and more funds, resources, technology, and talents have poured into the West.

Data shows that from 1996 to 2016, the eastern region helped build 7,325 schools, 1,690 health centers, and 21,500 kilometers of rural roads in the western impoverished areas; from 2015 to 2020, the nine eastern provinces and cities invested more than 100.5 billion yuan in financial aid and social assistance funds in poverty alleviation cooperation areas, and enterprises in the eastern region have invested more than 1 trillion yuan in poverty alleviation cooperation areas.

For 28 years, East-West cooperation has always been a concern of General Secretary Xi Jinping.

According to the central government's arrangement, Fujian provided assistance to Ningxia. In April 1997, Xi Jinping, then deputy secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee, went to Xihaigu, Ningxia to conduct a poverty alleviation investigation shortly after he became the leader of the Fujian Provincial Leading Group for Assisting Ningxia.

He spent several days investigating five counties, and was deeply shocked by what he saw along the way:

"I finally understood what it meant to be penniless. The family had neither tables, chairs, nor bedding. The only 'property' in the family was a handful of hair algae hanging from the beams of the house. They relied on selling this little hair algae to buy oil, salt, sauce and vinegar."

The investigation in Xihaigu enabled Comrade Xi Jinping to have a deeper reflection on the model of targeted cooperation between Fujian and Ningxia.

He built the Min-Ning Village and promoted the implementation of the "Diaozhuang Immigration" project; he appointed Lin Zhanhui to bring the mushroom grass technology to Ningxia; he attended the Fujian-Ningxia joint poverty alleviation cooperation meeting five times, laying the foundation for the Fujian-Ningxia cooperation...

After working in the central government, Comrade Xi Jinping visited Xihaigu three times in 2008, 2016 and 2020, all with a focus on poverty alleviation.

During his trip to Ningxia in 2016, when General Secretary Xi Jinping returned to Minning Town again, he specifically asked the car to circle the town and look around it carefully. The dusty "dry beach" of the past has become a "golden beach" with green trees and fertile fields, and the Minning Village with a population of more than 8,000 has grown into the Minning Town with a population of more than 60,000.

On that occasion, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over a symposium on East-West Poverty Alleviation Cooperation in Ningxia. He was deeply touched: "Organizing the eastern region to support the western region, and carrying out this work on a large scale and for a long time, only our party and country can do it in the world. This is our political advantage and institutional advantage."

Time moves forward. In 2021, when my country achieved a comprehensive victory in the fight against poverty, when Zhang Wen, then secretary of the Party Committee of Minning Town, received the honorary medal of "National Model of Poverty Alleviation" awarded to Minning Town, General Secretary Xi Jinping sent a heartfelt message: "Be consistent and be admired!"

Consistently, we focus on the overall strategic situation of national development.

"East-West poverty alleviation cooperation and targeted support is a grand strategy to promote coordinated, collaborative and common regional development. It is a grand layout to strengthen regional cooperation, optimize industrial layout and expand new space for domestic and foreign opening up. It is a major measure to achieve the goal of helping the poor to become rich first and ultimately achieve common prosperity."

The grand strategy, grand layout and major measures clearly illustrate the profound and significant significance of the east-west poverty alleviation cooperation and counterpart support.

Throughout its history, we have been committed to the goal of continuously realizing the people’s aspirations for a better life.

Speed ​​up the poverty alleviation and development process in the western impoverished areas. "The eastern coastal areas have developed first, and we cannot ignore other places. We must achieve common prosperity."

Work together to overcome poverty and "build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, leaving no one behind";

Focusing on comprehensively promoting rural revitalization, "the whole party must carry forward the spirit of poverty alleviation, seize the opportunity and continue to struggle."

At present, the east-west cooperation has become an important force to consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation and promote the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas. In 2023, eight provinces and cities in the east invested 23.19 billion yuan in financial assistance to 10 provinces and cities in the west, and the two sides sent 3,045 party and government officials and 25,000 professional and technical personnel to each other.

Countless people and countless efforts are writing a bold and colorful stroke of China's modernization: common prosperity for all people is the essential feature of China's modernization, and regional coordinated development is an inevitable requirement for achieving common prosperity.