“THE vast expanse of heaven and earth unfolds before me; the cows and sheep on the grassland are grazing in the breeze.”
Such is the pastoral pleasure celebrated in folk songs about 100 years ago of life in Inner Mongolia, a northern border region in China with an expansive landmass close to the size of South Africa, and home to China’s largest area of grassland and one-sixth of its coal reserve, In the decades before China’s reform and opening-up drive, however, overcultivation, overgrazing and excessive resources exploitation significantly degraded the region once known as the country’s Northern Oasis.

NATIONAL ASPIRATION FOR GREEN DEVELOPMENT
Reform and opening-up, since its launch some 45 years ago, has breathed new life into China’s economic development across the board. In this process, Inner Mongolia began with its most pressing task: plant more trees and improve people’s lives.
The solution was simple yet resolute: a whole-of-society approach. Inspired by their dearest love for the homeland and for nature, the people of Inner Mongolia dedicated themselves to tackling desertification and bringing back their once clear waters and green mountains, working like tireless Mongolian horses. Government officials toiled side by side with the people in the desert, and employees took from their own pocket to motivate employees to plant trees. In some families, tree-planting was a joint activity for grandparents, parents and children.
As a result, Inner Mongolia cut its desertified and sandified land by 4million hectares in the past decade, bringing about a historic reverse of desertification. In Kubuqi Desert, for example, 80 per cent of its most barren area is now covered by trees and woods, up from 6.3 per cent in the past. A leading force in China’s Three-North Shelterbelt Afforestation Program, the people in Inner Mongolia have erected a Green Great Wall in erstwhile deserts with their own hands.

DESERTS THAT YIELD GREAT RETURNS
In treating desertification, another question emerged: how to keep a good balance between protecting the environment and growing the economy? Inner Mongolia again came up with a solution: green growth in the desert. Leveraging the region’s high altitude and ample sunshine, Inner Mongolia built solar power stations in deserts and cultivated saxaul, yellowhorn, jujube and licorice under the solar panels, creating a new growth model that generates more profits, raises biodiversity, and improves the ecology systematically. Thanks to what is known as the Kubuqi model, which features a partnership of government, businesses and communities and the application of technology to empower the green industry, deserts are greening up, enterprises stronger, and the people richer.
For over a decade, China’s sustainable practice has provided a useful template for efforts around the world to counter desertification which threatens nearly a third of global population, At COP13 of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification in 2017, the Kubuqi model was adopted as a global consensus. As part of the implementation of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Global Development Initiative, the country is promoting international co-operation on combating desertification and advancing green growth, leveraging such avenues as the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (FOCAC) and South-South co-operation frameworks. China is shaping a world in which people can live their life and benefit from more clear waters and green mountains.

THE FOREFRONT OF OPENING-UP IN THE EURASIAN HINTERLAND
Entering the new era, industrial transformation has become a new task for Inner Mongolia. The region is responding with the third solution: engaging the world through higher-standard opening-up. Though situated in the hinterland, Inner Mongolia is on China’s northern border. With 20ports along its 4,200-kilometre border line, it is an important node for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the China-Russia-Mongolia Economic Corridor. Two of all three lines of the China-Europe Railway Express extend beyond China via this gateway. With the opening of China’s first automated guided vehicle (AGV) port here, consumers around the world can receive their orders from China in a faster, cheaper, and greener way.
Taking advantage of the BRI, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and other platforms, Inner Mongolia is stepping up international co-operation in such areas as farming and animal husbandry, energy and mineral resources, digital economy, biomedicine, infrastructure and new materials. It is also building soft links in culture, tourism, education, and training, With a mind as broad as the vast grassland, Inner Mongolia opens its arms to people all over the world. Celebrated local brands such as Yili, Mengniu, Mengtai, Erdos, and Elion are going global, riding the tides of a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalisation.
The three solutions of Inner Mongolia in reform and opening-up are a reflection of the nation’s progress and openness. They also speak to the Chinese ideal of serving its own people and seeking harmony for the world. China’s achievements in the decades-long reform and opening-up drive would not have been possible without the solidarity, enterprise, and innovation of Chinese people of all ethnicities. The recently concluded Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China shows once again China’s strong commitment to advancing Chinese modernisation that features harmony between humanity and nature.
It sends a clear message that China will further promote its high-standard opening-up. On this collective journey, China will join hands with all countries to write new chapters of development, invigoration and prosperity for a better world.