October 17th, 2023
Via the South China Morning Post, an article on China’s efforts to highlight Inner Mongolia:
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State Council’s first provincial-level high-quality development plan for the Inner Mongolia autonomous region focuses on ecology, energy, strategic minerals and border security
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Plan focuses on building the region, which shares its border with Russia and Mongolia, into an important shield for ecology and national security in northern China
Beijing hopes Inner Mongolia can become an “exemplar” autonomous region, promising more transport links with Russia and Mongolia and ordering the northern outpost to play a greater role in ecology, energy, strategic minerals and border security.
The positioning of the sparsely populated region of 24 million people, which is known for its rare earth reserves and energy resources, is included in the first provincial-level high-quality development plan rolled out by China’s State Council.
“[We’ll] build Inner Mongolia into an important shield for ecological and national security in northern China,” according to a document released by China’s cabinet on Monday.
“While being a key base for national energy, strategic resources and livestock production, it is also an important bridgehead for China’s opening to the north.”
The Inner Mongolia autonomous region, which occupies 12 per cent of China’s land mass but houses only 1.7 per cent of its 1.4 billion population, shares more than 4,200km (2,610 miles) of its border with Russia and landlocked Mongolia.
The region has been asked to enhance its transport links, including an upgrade of the railway line linking Mongolia and Russia, train transport and land port capacity.
Some 3,850 Europe-bound freight trains passed through Inner Mongolia in the first half of the year, according to state broadcaster CCTV.Manzhouli, a border city in Inner Mongolia, is the largest land port in China and takes more than 65 per cent of the land transport between China and Russia.Another port city, Erenhot, is the largest land and railway port to Mongolia.
According to the guidelines, Manzhouli and Erenhot are to be developed as “smart ports” and “digital national gates” to support railway routes between China and Europe.
Domestically, the region was ordered to consolidate its advantage in strategic minerals and energy resources.
“We will support building [the city of] Baotou into the country’s largest rare earth new material base and the world’s leading rare earth application base,” the guidelines added.
The state-owned China Northern Rare Earth (Group) High-Tech, based in Baotou, is a major producer of the strategic minerals widely used in new energy vehicles and defence systems.
Inner Mongolia is China’s largest thermal- and wind-power producer, accounting for 9 and 15 per cent of last year’s total, respectively, according to the local statistics bureau.
The guidelines released by the State Council expect new energy capacity in the region to exceed thermal power by 2027, while a new energy system will be mostly completed by 2035.
It also targets building Inner Mongolia into a mid-level economy and lifting local income levels up to the national average within five years.
Inner Mongolia ranked as the 21st-largest economy last year, with its per capita gross domestic product of more than 90,000 yuan (US$12,357) ranking eighth nationwide in 2022.
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