Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, stressed that Guangdong Province is the pacemaker and experimental zone of China's reform and opening up, and plays an instrumental role in Chinese modernization. He made the remarks during a recent inspection trip to the province. Xi said that with the goals of building China into a great socialist country and achieving national rejuvenation in mind, Guangdong must focus on high-quality development as the primary task and forging a new development pattern as the strategic mission to take the lead in promoting reform in all respects and higher-level opening up, achieving greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology, modernizing the industrial system, and advancing coordinated urban-rural and regional development, and be a trailblazer on the Chinese path to modernization.

From April 10 to 13, Xi made an inspection tour to Zhanjiang, Maoming, Guangzhou and other places where he visited enterprises, a port, a village among other sites. Xi was accompanied by Huang Kunming, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, and Wang Weizhong, governor of the province.