Xi Jinping vows no stop in reform and opening up

Xi Jinping, the Communist Party general secretary, wrapped up his five-day tour of Guangdong and returned to Beijing yesterday after making a string of high-profile calls for further reform and more opening up, in his first inspection trip since becoming the party's new chief last month.

China Central Television showed its first footage of Xi inspecting different locations in its main newscast last night. It said he visited Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan and Guangzhou, not mentioning his visit to a military base in Huizhou on Monday.

Xinhua also released several articles on Xi's southern tour yesterday, quoting him as saying there would be "no stop in reform, no stop in opening up". The news agency said Xi had reiterated during the trip that "reform and opening up was a great awakening in the party's history".

The party's 18th national congress last month, which led to Xi taking over from Hu Jintao as party general secretary, issued "a new declaration" and "a new order of mobilisation" for deepening reform and opening up, Xinhua quoted Xi as saying.

Xi said he chose Guangdong, which served as the testing ground for reform and policies aimed at opening up more than 30 years ago, as the destination for his first inspection tour because he wanted to "conduct an on-site retrospection of the history of reform and opening up and declare the resolve to press ahead with that policy".

But he also acknowledged that the country's reform had entered a most difficult phase, which would require "greater political courage and wisdom" to deepen reform in key areas.