Xi Jinping Emphasizes Normalizing East-West Regional Cooperation to Advance Shared Prosperity

China's national conference on east-west regional cooperation convened in Yinchuan, Ningxia on June 17, 2026, where President Xi Jinping's recent directive on normalizing assistance work was transmitted to participants. Xi praised the 30-year track record of east-west cooperation in supporting poverty alleviation and promoting regional coordination, while laying out clear requirements for establishing permanent assistance mechanisms.

The directive calls for summarizing successful experiences from the Min-Ning cooperation model—the partnership between Fujian and Ningxia established in 1997—and applying those lessons across China's broader regional development strategy. Officials and local leaders expressed deep encouragement from Xi's guidance, which emphasizes transitioning from unidirectional aid to mutual benefit and two-way engagement. The Min-Ning partnership has evolved from helping impoverished residents in the Xihaigu region relocate to the irrigated plains near the Helan Mountains, transforming the original "Min-Ning Village" into today's thriving Min-Ning Town, described as moving from "barren sand" to "golden sand."

Under the normalization framework, China will maintain long-term fixed pairing relationships between eight eastern provinces and municipalities with ten western provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities. Additionally, economically developed counties and districts in the east will establish targeted assistance relationships with rural revitalization priority counties in western cooperation areas, achieving comprehensive pairing coverage. The cooperation model has expanded beyond traditional subsidy mechanisms to encompass industrial complementarity, personnel exchange, technological learning, and ideological mutual enrichment.

Practical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach across multiple sectors. In Ningxia's Min-Ning Town, major projects including the Hongxing Erke production base and Goji Valley deep-processing facility have begun operations. Guizhou's Zheng'an guitar industry park, supported by east-west cooperation funds, now houses over 140 guitar manufacturers and suppliers, accounting for approximately one-seventh of global guitar production. Labor cooperation initiatives like Zhejiang's "Blue Eagle Program" have successfully matched western workers with eastern enterprises, exemplified by workers from Sichuan now employed in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Educational collaboration has expanded, with Qinghai's vocational schools coordinating with eastern universities to develop skilled workers through apprenticeships and joint training bases.

The cooperation encompasses diverse sectors including agricultural product marketing, cultural tourism development, and technological innovation. Agricultural exports from Xinjiang employ cold-chain logistics networks to reach eastern markets, while Gansu's rural tourism integrates agricultural facilities, red cultural heritage experiences, and intangible cultural preservation. Guangdong-Guizhou cooperation extends from industrial collaboration to infrastructure development and talent exchange. The strategic pivot from "blood transfusion" poverty relief to "blood production" internal capacity building reflects the shift toward sustainable, market-driven development that generates endogenous growth momentum in western regions.