Building the Hongqiao international opening-up hub is another major deployment of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core for driving the strategy of integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region, and another major strategic task Shanghai undertakes after building the Lingang new area of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) and the Yangtze River Delta ecological green integration development demonstration area. Grand Hongqiao people usually call it is expected to interpret its “Grandness” at a deep level with an all-round and large-scale upgrade and become an important pivot under the new development paradigm.

Shanghai has been laying out Hongqiao and investing in it for years, and it has been more than ten years since the Hongqiao business district was planned and developed. The Hongqiao international opening-up hub approved by the State Council spreads over 7,000 square kilometers from the original planned development area of 86 square kilometers, with the core area of 151.4 square kilometers, and its construction is undertaken by the three provinces and one municipality in the Yangtze River Delta region instead of Shanghai only.

This means that the local practice of Shanghai has been raised to a national strategy driven by the whole Yangtze River Delta region and that Shanghai’s Hongqiao is going to become “Hongqiao of the Yangtze River Delta Region,” “Hongqiao of China” and “Hongqiao of the World.”

For Shanghai, the upgrade of Hongqiao is exactly like the epitome of a large-scale and strategic transformation and upgrade, and a reconstruction of the spatial layout and development paradigm of the whole city. It further reminds Shanghai of the development positioning the city needs to consistently adheres to – adhering to the strategic positioning by the central government with regard to Shanghai’s development, following the great trend of economic globalization, putting itself in the overall layout of national development and in the overall deployments by the state on the development of the Yangtze River Delta region to consider and plan Shanghai’s development; in the meantime it also reminds Shanghai of the urban functions it should strengthen and the special role it needs to play in the new development paradigm.

It has been specified that Shanghai strives to become the central pivot of domestic grand circulation and the strategic linkage between the domestic and international dual circulation, and to act as a key supporting role in smoothing domestic grand circulation and as a leading role in driving the domestic and international dual circulation. For the city itself, Shanghai needs to orient itself toward the Yangtze River Delta region, China and toward the world, and conduct agglomeration of resources, radiation of functions and exchange of energy on a larger sector so as to show its capability level and functions as a central city and boost its strength and competitiveness. In a bigger field of view, the Yangtze River Delta region as a whole on which the central government pins the high hope of taking the lead in forming a new development paradigm and making a strategic offensive move, the leader Shanghai is duty-bound to take the initiative in building platforms and constructing passages to serve the building of a new development paradigm.

    Grand Hongqiao boasts inherent location advantage and industry foundation, especially the sense of reform and opening-up gene deeply rooted for decades, which constitutes the foundation for a qualitative leap in the next step. Today Hongqiao has been an intersection and a transfer station of global cargo flow, business flow, flow of people, money flow and information flow and, in the future, the function of a hub should be further strengthened, and two-way opening up and two-way linkage should be moved to a deeper and more profound level.

(Author: commentator for Jiefang Daily)