BEIJING -- Reporters covering the National People's Congress, China's parliament, headed to a Beijing hotel on March 6 to watch Chen Min'er, the Communist Party secretary of Chongqing and a rising star in Chinese politics. Chen is a confidant of President Xi Jinping, and reporters listened to his every word as he presided over a parliamentary session on Chongqing policies.
Few reporters, meanwhile, seemed to show interest in a potentially important statement by another participant. At the session, Zhu Huarong, the president of automaker Chongqing Changan Automobile, stood up and said: "Following the guidance of "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era," we will make use of Chongqing's prosperous defense industry and integrate it with the private sector to lead the development of defense-related science and technology. Furthermore, with those developments in hand, we will head to overseas markets cultivated by the Belt and Road Initiative."
