Visits reaffirm commitment to ethnic areas

President Xi Jinping is greeted by people of the Dong ethnic group on Monday during his visit to a village in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture in Southwest China’s Guizhou province. XIE HUANCHI / XINHUA At the start of China's 14th Five-Year Plan period, President Xi Jinping made a fact-finding trip to Guizhou province, where people of ethnic minority groups account for more than 36 percent of the population and which is home to the last nine counties removed from the country's poverty list in 2020. "Building on this foundation, provincial-level regions in Southwest China, including Guizhou and Yunnan, which boast rich historical heritage and vibrant ethnic cultures, have achieved notable success in leveraging ethnic culture to boost tourism and promote economic development," he said, adding that this could be one reason that Xi chose these areas for his first fact-finding trip after the two sessions. Yuan, from the CASS institute, said that as 2025 is the final year of the 14th plan period and marks the transition from nationwide poverty alleviation to rural vitalization, economic development plays a crucial role for areas with large ethnic minority populations, so that they can keep pace with the country's overall development. "These experiences can offer important insights for other ethnic areas in China on how to empower high-quality development through ethnic culture tailored to local conditions," he said.