What should Zhejiang’s economy learn from Fujian?

In 2023, based on the total size, the ranking of GDP of China’s provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) is Guangdong 13.57 trillion yuan, Jiangsu 12.82 trillion yuan, Shandong 9.21 trillion yuan, Zhejiang 8.26 trillion yuan, which can be called the “first echelon” of China’s economy. Among them, Guangdong and Jiangsu, in particular, have always been the benchmarks for Zhejiang to learn and catch up.

But we might as well change our perspective. If we follow the changes in the GDP ranking of provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) in mainland China based on the 45 years of reform and opening up, in 1978, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Zhejiang ranked fifth, second, fourth, and twelfth respectively, while in 2023, the four provinces ranked first, second, third, and fourth respectively. Based on this calculation, Zhejiang’s GDP ranking has risen by 8 places in 45 years, higher than the other three provinces. If we look at it from a national perspective, we can see that Zhejiang’s GDP ranking rose by the second place in the country during the same period, while the largest increase was in Fujian, which is adjacent to Zhejiang but easily overlooked: it rose by 15 places from 23rd in 1978 to 8th.

The quality of the geographical space environment is one of the key variables affecting regional economic growth. In a certain sense, it can even be considered “geographical determinism”. Comparative analysis of Zhejiang and its two neighboring provinces to the north and south: Jiangsu Province accounts for 87% of plains, ranking first in the country; Zhejiang is known as “seven mountains, one water, and two fields”, with mountains accounting for 74.6%; Fujian’s mountainous and hilly areas account for as high as 90%, second only to Guizhou, ranking second in the country. It has always been called one of the two “military strategists must not fight for” places, and the objective geographical conditions are insufficient.

Traditionally, Zhejiang has always been divided into East Zhejiang and West Zhejiang, which includes quite diverse historical administrative divisions, economic geography and ideological concepts. Generally speaking, the Qiantang River, which runs from southwest to northeast, is the boundary, with West Zhejiang on the left and East Zhejiang on the right. However, if we make a comparative analysis based on the differentiated development paths of regional economies in contemporary reform and opening up, I think Zhejiang is more suitable to be clearly divided into two blocks: northern Zhejiang and southern Zhejiang.

Northern Zhejiang roughly covers the six cities of Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing and Zhoushan, while southern Zhejiang covers the five cities of Wenzhou, Taizhou, Jinhua, Quzhou and Lishui. From this perspective, Zhejiang presents an intriguing mirror image of “two Zhejiangs” – “northern Zhejiang is like Jiangsu, and southern Zhejiang is like Fujian”.

As the two provinces with the fastest progress in China’s reform and opening up, it is not difficult to find that the common characteristics and greatest driving force of the reform and development of the two provinces are derived from the free flow combination of productive factors stimulated by the migration of people on the basis of the fully developed market economy. According to statistics, the Chinese who travel the most around China are from Zhejiang, with more than 6 million Zhejiang businessmen starting businesses outside the province and more than 2 million Zhejiang businessmen starting businesses abroad; the Chinese who travel the most around the world are from Fujian, with a total of 15.8 million overseas Chinese, which is less than Guangdong’s 30 million. However, since Guangdong has a permanent population of 127 million and Fujian has only more than 41.8 million, Fujian ranks first on a per capita basis.

Zhejiang also has the world’s largest shipping port, Ningbo Zhoushan Port; the world’s largest small commodity wholesale market, Yiwu China Small Commodity City; the world’s largest Internet e-commerce platform, Alibaba; the world’s largest express delivery industry cluster – in 2023, the total number of express tickets in the world will be 200 billion, and China will reach 132 billion, of which the “three links and one reach” of the Tonglu system of Zhejiang businessmen will exceed 80 billion.

In addition to the driving force for development, it is worth paying attention to the choice of regional economic growth path. Taking the county economy as the sample for investigation, Fujian’s “first county (city)” is Jinjiang City, Quanzhou, with a GDP of 336.4 billion yuan in 2023, leading the province for many consecutive years. Comparing with Zhejiang horizontally, Cixi City’s GDP in the same year was 264 billion yuan, ranking first among all counties (cities) in the province; if the comparison radius is expanded to counties (cities, districts), the first in Zhejiang is Yuhang District, Hangzhou, with a GDP of 293.6 billion yuan. In other words, although Zhejiang’s total economic volume is much larger than Fujian, Fujian’s “economic champions” are stronger than Zhejiang.

“Jinjiang Model” is known as China’s “Four Major Models” of Reform and Opening Up together with “Wenzhou Model”, “Southern Jiangsu Model” and “Pearl River Delta Model”. More than 40 years later, Jinjiang has a long-lasting foundation: the city currently has 51 listed companies, ranking second among counties in the country; it has nurtured a large number of national and even world-class brands and excellent companies such as Hengan, Anta, Septwolves, and Jiumuwang; it has spawned a footwear industry of over 300 billion, a textile industry of over 100 billion, two food and building materials industries of over 50 billion, and two medical health and smart equipment industry clusters of over 30 billion.

The “Jinjiang Miracle” has the following distinct development trajectory and characteristics: manufacturing; traditional industries; real economy, and exudes a dazzling modern economic light. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Anta Sports tailored the first set of China’s dragon scale auspicious pattern “carbon neutral” Olympic award-winning uniforms made of environmentally friendly recycled fibers for the Chinese sports delegation. In recent years, Anta has even acquired world-class sports brands such as Arc’teryx, Salomon, Wilson, and Atomik.

In June 2002, the then main leader of the Fujian Provincial Government, who had previously visited Jinjiang seven times, formally proposed the “Jinjiang Experience” for the first time and systematically summarized “the inspiration of the Jinjiang Experience for Fujian’s economic development.”

At present, Zhejiang is in an important period of transition from the old to the new and high-quality development. While the new quality productivity is rapidly cultivated and growing, there are still many issues that need to be deeply thought about and explored: Are traditional industries backward production capacity? How to view the large-scale and wide-ranging private small and medium-sized enterprises that used to be the “waist of Zhejiang’s economy”? How to grasp the dialectical relationship between the upgrading of traditional industries and the transformation of high-tech industries? How to promote the localization of transformation and upgrading and the continuity of small-step, fast-running innovation?

Taking Jinjiang and Fujian as a mirror, Zhejiang can learn a lot.