Huai’an is the city that lies slap bang in the middle of Jiangsu Province. It is also the birthplace of China’s first premier under the CCP, Zhou Enlai. But that leader’s admirable legacy hasn’t rubbed off very well on Huai’an of late.
When the “Top 100 Counties” list in China list was announced recently, Huia’an stood out for being one of only two cities in Jiangsu without one of its counties on the list. The other is Lianyungang.
That’s the fact being highlighted in a 1 September commentary by Shanghai based media outlet, The Paper, after its review of the list, published over 7 years and complied by consultancy firm, CCID.
On this year’s list, 23 spots are occupied by counties in Jiangsu and the top four are also Jiangsunese.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Huai’an was one of the four major cities along the Grand Canal, as famous as Suzhou, Hangzhou and Yangzhou. Today, however, Huai’an’s GDP ranks 11th among the 13 cities of Jiangsu, besting only Lianyungang and Suqian.
Hence it was that on 30 July, at the sixth plenary session of the 8th CCP Huai’an Municipal Committee, the focus was on how to achieve high-quality, leap-frog development. A week beforehand, a local CCP and government delegation had gone to the neighbouring cities of Suqian and Yancheng to study their advanced-economic development. The takeaway they came home with is that there is no time to be slow.
Huai’an, though, still has a couple of tricks up its sleeve and stands out for having the two obvious candidates for a spot on that coveted Top 100 Counties list. But both did not pass the test this time around and some are as a result labelling the City of Huai’an as a failure.
Those two candidates are Lianshui and Xuyi, and both have much to offer, kind of.
The former boasts an “international” airport; Huai’an Lianshui International Airport, which at time of writing serves no international destinations whatsoever, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Lianshui also has a number of large high-tech enterprises and a high-speed railway station on the line between Nanjing and Lianyungang.
Then there is the county of Xuyi, surprising for not having made the grade. For Xuyi is the world capital of crayfish. China is now globally the biggest exporter of the beasts, while the Chinese themselves chomp their way through more than 90 per cent of global crayfish consumption, over 1 million tons each year. And much of those come out of Xuyi. But that still hasn’t been enough to make it into a Top 100 County.
There is always next year and there is some light on the horizon. Huai’an has in it a new vice mayor in the form of Gu Kun. As the youngest such mayor in Jiangsu, born in 1976, there’s a chance of some new approaches, leading, with a spot of luck, to the city regaining the pride in which it once basked under Zhou Enlai.
