Chongqing leads China's mega-city modern governance with digital city operation and governance center

The Chongqing Municipality in southwest China is at the forefront of modern governance of mega-cities in China, with its digital city operation and governance center as an important tool.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of Communist Party of China Central Committee, visited the center on Tuesday and learned about the city's efforts in enhancing the modernization of city governance.

"Today, I had the great honor of reporting to General Secretary Xi on the progress of Chongqing's digital city operation and governance center. General Secretary Xi has paid great attention to the governance of mega-cities. The modernization of city governance capabilities and systems is an important component of China's modernization," said Dai Xiaohong, director of the Chongqing Big Data Application and Development Bureau.

The digital city operation and governance center consists of one city center, 41 district and county (development zone) centers and 1,031 town and subdistrict centers.

"General Secretary Xi has asked us to explore new paths for the modernized governance of mega-cities. Therefore, our city operation and governance center serves as a crucial tool for Chongqing to explore new approaches to mega-city governance. Currently, we have established a three-tiered digital city operation and governance center with the aim of achieving integrated deployment. Horizontally, it involves the integration of relevant departments to enable effective coordination. Vertically, it facilitates connectivity from the city level, the district and county level and the town and subdistrict level, all the way down to the villages, communities and grids. This enables us to ensure seamless coordination and one-click dispatching throughout the entire system," said Luo Ying, head of the application and promotion department of the Chongqing Big Data Application and Development Bureau.

Serving as the "city brain," the center is a core system that enables the city-wide monitoring and warning, command and dispatch, decision support and event follow-up. It improves city operation and governance and makes the city smarter.

"The city operation and governance center enables more precise perception, assessment and identification of various risk points within our city. Even in the event of an emergency, multiple departments can come together in the three-tiered city operation and governance center to coordinate and command, thereby enhancing the efficiency of incident handling," said Xiao Lu, deputy director of the information and communication division of the Chongqing Fire and Rescue Brigade.

"Within our current digital application system, we have installed approximately 65,000 monitoring devices, covering nearly 12,000 geological hazard-prone areas. Our intelligent monitoring devices can promptly sense risks and issue warnings, and transmit information to our three-tiered governance center for timely expert consultation and assessment. The planning and natural resources bureau, the emergency meteorological department and other relevant departments can cooperate closely to respond to and handle any disaster and risk. This demonstrates their collaborative capabilities," said Li Shaorong, director of the geological exploration and management division of the Chongqing Planning and Natural Resources Bureau.

The center also gathers information on water resources, electricity, bridges and tunnels, therefore, boosting efficiency in public service delivery.

"As a city of bridges, Chongqing has over 2,700 bridges, including dozens of major bridges over various rivers. These bridges serve as the lifeline of our transportation system and are a key focus in our digitalization efforts. We aim to continuously enhance our digital governance capabilities and improve our modern management level and management methods," said Lin Hai, deputy director of the technology and information division at the Chongqing Urban Management Bureau.

The center is an embodiment of the city's innovative attempts to leverage advantages of digital technologies during their exploration of modern governance.

"In terms of serving the millions of residents in a mega-city like ours, we need to rely on technological support and data empowerment to enhance and transform the traditional concepts, methods and approaches of city operation and management," said Dai.

Officials said that they will firmly remember Xi's instructions as they continue their future endeavors.

"General Secretary Xi Jinping has asked officials to act with an unfailing sense of responsibility at all times. Therefore, our next focus will be on the most urgent and pressing aspects. For example, as Chongqing has entered the flood season and is a mountainous city, urban water-logging will be a key area of our attention," said Luo.

"The modernization of city governance capabilities is the direction of both development and endeavors. It requires continuous exploration, improvement, testing and enhancement through practices. This is to better serve all aspects of our mega-city and ensure the safe, stable and orderly work and life of our residents," said Dai.

Chongqing leads China's mega-city modern governance with digital city operation and governance center

The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government always stick to the path of common prosperity by placing enriching the people as a top priority.

In "Classic Quotes by Xi Jinping", CGTN host Liu Xin and Canadian Majid Ghorbani, an associate professor at the China Europe International Business School visited beekeepers from Miyun, a northeast suburb of Beijing, to explore the modern implications of this ancient wisdom for Miyun's beekeepers, as they embark on a journey to common prosperity.

"The key to running a country is to first enrich the people." The saying, which comes from Shiji, or Records of the Grand Historian, a monumental history book of ancient China compiled about 2,000 years ago, sets forth the traditional Chinese philosophy of governance: the common people are considered the foundation of a country and only when the people prosper can the country prosper.

This is a classic piece of Chinese wisdom, and it has become part of the governance philosophy of China in modern times.

Miyun District has over 300 years of beekeeping history, and modern techniques are taking the industry to new heights.

Liu Jinliang, a second-generation beekeeper in Miyun District, practices multi-box beekeeping. He is China's first beekeeper to successfully utilize the technique, introduced by the district government in 2016.

It took the young bee farmer five years to fully implement the new technique, and now, it is helping his family and local beekeepers live a "sweet" life.

"This apiary has over 200 hives. This multi-box structure includes one brood box and two supers. That's three layers. This is the minimum number of boxes. Traditional beekeeping only uses two boxes. Let's check this hive to see how much honey the bees have produced. When the cells are capped, it means the honey is ripe," said Liu.

"What is being taken from the beehive, is called natural honey, which doesn't need to be processed. Through my practice, I want to show other beekeepers that we can produce pure ripe honey and help increase our income," he said.

Spurred on by Liu and the local government, around 30 percent of bee farmers in Miyun have now adopted the new technique, greatly boosting the output and quality of their honey. Over 360 low-income farmers in Miyun have shaken off poverty since joining the beekeeping project.

The beekeeping industry in Miyun generated around 130 million yuan (about 18.28 million U.S. dollars) in revenue in 2020, an increase of 19.3 percent over 2019. Encouraged by what has been achieved in Miyun, more and more bee farmers across China have turned to the multi-box beekeeping technique for raising their honey output while improving quality.

Chinese President Xi Jinping once quoted the ancient Chinese proverb, "The key to running a country is to first enrich the people" to explain why the country is striving for common prosperity. Liu's story gives a glimpse of China's exploration of the paths to achieve that goal.

When quoting the saying at a gathering to mark China's poverty alleviation accomplishments and honor model poverty fighters, President Xi pledged the country would adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, and unswervingly follow the path of common prosperity.

"The key to running a country is to first enrich the people. China upholds a people-centered philosophy of development and unswervingly pursues prosperity for all. Ending poverty, improving people's well-being and realizing common prosperity are the essential requirements of socialism," said Xi.

Behind Liu's success is the Miyun District government. It has helped local beekeepers learn advanced apiculture techniques and provided them with high-quality queen bees at no charge.

"Any government that doesn't think about the people, then they're not gonna be able to run the country as well," said Majid.

"So this goes back to what management we call expanding the pie. If he tries to make everybody else grow with him, (the) price of honey eventually from his region is gonna become higher and higher. So that pie is gonna expand. And that's common prosperity, the meaning of common prosperity," he said.

To better help beekeepers, the district government has also provided financial aid to support about 30 projects in the sector, with an investment of about 100 million yuan (about 14 million U.S. dollars), to help make commercial beekeeping standardized and industrialized.

China sticks to path of common prosperity to enrich people first