After the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the authorities established a Central Regional Coordination Development Leadership Team, but the leadership has never been officially disclosed. Recently, Hong Kong media mentioned that it is led by Vice Premier Ding Xexiang, with the office located in the National Development and Reform Commission of the CPC. Official news about the progress of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area construction shows that the CPC’s “regional coordination” seems to be in disarray, prompting attention to the underlying reasons.
On June 13, the CPPCC National Committee held a bi-weekly consultation meeting on “strengthening the alignment of rules and mechanisms in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.”
The People’s Political Consultative Daily of the CPC disclosed on the 16th that in April this year, Liu Cigui, a member of the National Committee of the CPPCC and Director of the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Overseas Chinese Committee, who conducted research in Hong Kong, Macao, and Guangdong on the Greater Bay Area, pointed out at the meeting issues related to the alignment of rules and mechanisms in the Greater Bay Area that remain to be resolved, whether involving legal aspects, central government authority, or differing interests and demands among the three regions of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao.
Liu Cigui suggested that there needs to be “enhanced top-level design at the central level.” National Committee member and President of the National Hong Kong and Macao Studies Association, Deng Zhonghua, also believed that further strengthening top-level design and overall coordination is necessary.
An article in the Hong Kong newspaper Sing Tao Daily on June 19, mentioned that in August 2018, the Beijing authorities set up a leadership team for the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with then Vice Premier Han Zheng as the team leader and the Chief Executives of Hong Kong and Macao as members of the team. However, in 2023, the central government decided to merge several regional strategic leadership teams into the “Central Regional Coordination Development Leadership Team,” led by Vice Premier Ding Xexiang, with the office located in the National Development and Reform Commission.
Included in the Central Regional Coordination are not only the Greater Bay Area but also the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the Hainan Free Trade Port, Western Development, revitalizing the Northeast, and more.
According to the aforementioned article by the Hong Kong media, based on the recommendations of the CPPCC research group, is it possible to restore the “Greater Bay Area Construction Leadership Team”? However, from a practical perspective, the possibility of merging and then restoring it separately seems unlikely.
Official data shows that after the 20th National Congress of the CPC, the authorities set up the Central Regional Coordination Development Leadership Team, with several regional teams quietly disbanded. In September 2023, the State Council of the CPC issued the “Development Plan for Shenzhen Park of the Hetao-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone,” marking the first appearance of the name the Central Regional Coordination Development Leadership Team.
The official website of the National Development and Reform Commission of the CPC shows that there is a Regional Coordination Development Department to handle relevant affairs. However, the list of the team leader and deputy leader of this central-level leadership team has never been made public.
On April 23, 2024, CPC leader Xi Jinping presided over a seminar on the development of the Western Region in Chongqing, attended by three members of the Politburo Standing Committee, including Premier Li Keqiang, Director of the General Office of the Central Committee Cai Qi, and Vice Premier Ding Xexiang. At the meeting, Xi emphasized the need for the Central Regional Coordination Development Leadership Team to strengthen overall coordination and monitoring. Subsequently, Li Keqiang and Ding Xexiang made speeches in succession.
Political commentator Li Linyi told Epoch Times that according to the pro-Beijing Hong Kong media, the head of the Central Regional Coordination Development Leadership Team is Ding Xexiang. However, judging from the remarks made by Li Keqiang and Ding Xexiang at last year’s seminar on the development of the Western Region, in terms of central regional coordination matters, Li Keqiang, as the Premier, still holds the higher position than Ding. The problem is that the office of this leadership team is located in the Development and Reform Commission, which is the political stronghold of Vice Premier He Lifeng. The current director of the Development and Reform Commission, Zheng Zhanjie, is a close associate of He, so He Lifeng may also have an influence. The leadership authority of this Central Regional Coordination team may be facing internal struggles.
Li Linyi suggested that from the perspective of the CPPCC highlighting the existing obstacles in the alignment of mechanisms in the Greater Bay Area and recommending the “strengthening of top-level design at the central level” and overall coordination, it is possible that due to the internal struggles at the top levels of the CPC, the entire regional coordination is in chaos. It is not ruled out that just like the situation with the State Council’s rural revitalization office being established independently and then becoming vacant two years later, these central regional areas cobbled together from several regional areas may face dissolution again. Even if they are not dissolved, they may end up being fruitless, with the so-called central coordination being insignificant, and ultimately each region acting on its own accord.