China’s Xi Jinping targets energy, food security and environment in Shandong trip

Energy, food security and conservation were on the agenda as President Xi Jinping visited Shandong province in eastern China this week, according to state media. Xi inspected conservation efforts in the Yellow River estuary in Dongying on Wednesday before touring a demonstration area for hi-tech agriculture, a residential community, and China’s second-biggest oilfield on Thursday, state news agency Xinhua reported. The trip comes about two weeks before top Communist Party leaders gather in Beijing for a major meeting as part of preparations for next year’s national congress. The congress is expected to be the backdrop for a “Resolution on History”, a major political document taking stock of the party’s achievements and determining major party policies for the coming decades. Shandong is home to more than 100 million people and is a major industrial base, ranking third nationally in GDP, after Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces. It is also the home province of Xi’s wife Peng Liyuan. According to Xinhua, Xi visited the Shengli oilfield’s oil exploration research institute and boarded the drilling platform to inspect the operations. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the oilfield and Xi told the workers that the industry was of “great significance” to the country. “As a major manufacturing country develop the real economy, we must hold our energy supplies firmly in our own hands,” he was quoted as saying. China’s clean energy push targets sandy, rocky reaches for solar and wind power bases Xie Maosong, a senior researcher with the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said Xi’s trip to the oilfield sent a clear signal that domestically-developed technology was the key to China’s goals of meeting the country’s energy demands, securing national energy supplies and cutting carbon emissions. The Shengli oilfield has been lauded for its contribution to China’s carbon neutrality goal, with its adoption of carbon capture technology. According to state broadcaster CCTV, 430,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide were injected into the field and all 300 oil production facilities in the core area and buffer zone of the Yellow River Delta’s nature reserve were shut down to help rehabilitate the environment. “Xi is telling the country that there are ways to achieve the difficult, seemingly conflicting goals of having enough heating for winter, sustainable economic development and carbon reduction,” Xie said. China is the world’s largest crude oil and natural gas importer and its dependency on oil and gas imports has increased substantially in the past decade. Over 70 per cent of the oil it uses is imported, while over 40 per cent of its natural gas comes from outside the country. But China is also enduring a severe power shortage caused by skyrocketing fossil fuel prices, rising electricity demand from its export industry and increasing home heating needs as cooler weather sets in much earlier than previous years. According to Xinhua, Xi also stressed that China should be self-sufficient in food supplies during a visit to a research site experimenting with plants and crops resistant to the saline-alkaline soils on the Yellow River Delta. “[China’s] land resources are very precious. The development of saline-alkaline-resistant crops is of great significance to increasing land utilisation. It can also play a positive role in safeguarding China’s granary and our rice bowl,” he was quoted as saying. China food security: Beijing taps US to fill more than a third of next season’s corn imports On Friday afternoon in the provincial capital Jinan, Xi also called a top-level meeting on the Yellow River Basin’s protection and development. He said there were still “clear contradictions and problems” in the basin, telling authorities to be better prepared for flooding triggered by extreme weather and to pursue a green development path with lower carbon emissions. Xi also visited Yangmiao New Town housing 4,700 residents relocated from the floodplain of the Yellow River, saying he was “very pleased” to see the improvements in their living standards. Relocation of millions of floodplain residents and conservation of the Yellow River Delta are among the two priorities in a Yellow River protection and development plan released by the party’s Central Committee and the State Council on October 8. The Yellow River runs over 5,000km (3,100 miles) from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and through the Loess Plateau in northern China.