ExclusiveChinese President Xi Jinping to visit Qianhai economic test bed as US trade war takes toll
- Trip comes as Beijing confronts slowing growth, falling share prices and mounting debt
- Observers say entrepreneurs might not be sold on official attempts to reassure them about their role in the economy
Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit a testing ground for economic innovation on his trip to southern China this week, as Beijing tries to allay fears over its economic direction and an escalating trade war with the United States.
Sources with knowledge of the trip said the visit to the Qianhai pilot economic zone in Shenzhen was part of Xi’s first trip in nearly six years to Guangdong province, the birthplace of the country’s market-oriented reforms.
The trip got under way on Monday afternoon with a tour of a hi-tech industrial estate in Zhuhai and will include the opening ceremony for the new Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge on Tuesday.
The sources said the president would also head to Qianhai in Shenzhen, a former a sleepy fishing village that became China’s first special economic zone and a thriving manufacturing hub of 13.6 million people.
Qianhai, a sprawling district of 15 sq km on the southern edge of Shenzhen, was earmarked in 2011 to foster closer cooperation between mainland China and Hong Kong and innovation in the service industry. It has since attracted nearly 165,000 companies, mainly financial and logistics firms, with tax breaks and other incentives.
