Published by ChinaMNC · Tiantai

What Xi's Ulanqab Visit Signals for Foreign Founders: Green Power, Computing Capacity and China's New Growth Map

A practical ChinaMNC briefing for foreign founders on the policy signals from Xi Jinping's October 16 inspection tour of Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia — covering green computing capacity, ecological governance, and what it means for company registration and operations in China.

Why This Visit Matters to Foreign Founders

On October 16, Xi Jinping visited Ulanqab in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, his fourth inspection of Inner Mongolia since the 18th Party Congress. The visit falls in the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, and next year the region marks its 80th anniversary. For foreign founders deciding where to register or expand operations in China, the signals from this tour are worth reading carefully: they point to the sectors and regions Beijing intends to back, and to the risks it intends to curb.

The Strategic Frame: Two Barriers, Two Bases, One Bridgehead

Three years ago, during an earlier inspection, Xi set out a clear strategic direction for Inner Mongolia. The priority was to firmly grasp the strategic positioning assigned by the Party Central Committee and to deliver new progress in building the “two barriers,” the “two bases,” and the “one bridgehead.” For founders, the practical takeaway is that regional policy in Inner Mongolia is anchored to a fixed national framework — energy, ecological security, and opening-up — rather than to short-term local preferences.

Ecology as an Operating Condition

At Huangqihai, a closed inland lake fed by 11 rivers, local officials reported that years of comprehensive treatment — redrawing protection zones, dredging inflow channels, tackling aquaculture and agricultural runoff in the protected area, and restoring grassland and forest — had produced staged results. By the end of last month, the lake surface exceeded 85 square kilometers. Officials also noted that fish stocks were monitored again in May last year, indicating gradual recovery of the water body's self-purification capacity and ecological cycle.

Xi's remarks on wetland protection were specific. He said the priority in wetland conservation is to preserve the original ecology, and that respect for nature, compliance with nature, and protection of nature must be maintained. For degraded wetland ecosystems, natural recovery should lead and manual intervention should supplement, with restoration carried out scientifically and reasonably.

He also noted that Inner Mongolia's task in desert control is relatively heavy, requiring sustained, long-term effort to push back the sand and expand green cover, and that grassland protection requires addressing overgrazing in livestock development.

Local officials presented figures: since 2023, 130 million mu of ecological construction has been completed, equivalent to 85% of the volume achieved over more than 40 years across the first five phases of the “Three-North” program. The region has 428 lakes with a perennial water surface exceeding one square kilometer, bird species in lake areas have increased by 94 compared with 2021, and native fish species long absent have reappeared in lakes including Daihai and Huangqihai.

Founder takeaway: Environmental compliance, water use, and land-use rules in Inner Mongolia are tightening in the direction of systematic governance across mountains, rivers, forests, farmland, lakes, grassland, and sand. Projects with heavy water demand or sensitive siting should budget for longer environmental review and stricter operating conditions.

Green Computing: The Core Commercial Signal

The most directly commercial part of the visit was at the Chahar High-Tech Development Zone in Ulanquab. Xi stated that China has already reached parity or leadership in some fields of new quality productive forces, and that the computing power industry is one of them.

Inner Mongolia is one of China's eight national computing hubs and ten data center clusters. It is seizing the opportunity presented by the national “East Data, West Computing” project and the build-out of a national integrated computing network, converting its wind and solar advantages into computing advantages, and aims to build a green computing support base serving the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and reaching nationwide.

Ulanqab's combination of advantages was set out plainly: it is the Inner Mongolia city closest to Beijing; it has nearly ten months of natural cooling resources each year; green power is abundant; the climate is cool; its location is close; its geology is stable; latency on direct fiber links to Beijing is low; and data center power usage effectiveness is industry-leading.

Policy context reinforces the direction. Last April, at a Politburo study session, Xi stressed coordinated progress in computing infrastructure. This April, a Politburo meeting proposed strengthening planning and construction of the “six networks.” With the 15th Five-Year Plan now underway, construction of the six networks — including the computing network — has been folded into the broader building of a modern infrastructure system. Not long ago, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Opinions on Developing New Quality Productive Forces, which explicitly deploy the building of a national integrated computing network and the efficient supply of computing power, algorithms, and data.

Xi assessed the sector as fast-growing with strong future potential, and said the industrial chain should be actively extended, the digital economy deeply integrated with the real economy, and computing advantages continuously converted into development advantages.

Energy and water efficiency were a focus. Xi examined the layout plan for a computing center project, a source-grid-load-storage model, an integrated cooling station model, and a smart power system model, asking detailed questions about power usage effectiveness and water resource utilization efficiency.

The Warning: Disorderly Development and “Involution”

Xi was explicit about the risks he watches most closely in new quality productive forces and in China's leading industries: disorderly development, with everyone rushing in at once and then dispersing just as quickly, which damages enthusiasm; and “involution,” meaning blind competition and development that ignores one's own conditions.

Founder takeaway: Policy support for green computing is real, but so is the determination to prevent duplicated, uncoordinated projects. Foreign founders entering this space should expect scrutiny of project rationality, local conditions, and efficiency metrics — and should differentiate rather than replicate.

Talent and Skills

In building its green computing cluster, Ulanqab uses a model in which formal education and social training complement each other, gradually forming a talent development system aligned with employers' hiring needs. For founders, this suggests locally available training channels that can be adapted to company-specific requirements.

What to Do Next

• Map your sector against national priorities — green energy, computing infrastructure, and digital-real economy integration are clearly favored.
• For data or computing projects, prepare efficiency documentation on power and water use before committing to a site.
• Build environmental and resource compliance into your timeline for Inner Mongolia operations.
• Engage local talent pipelines early; training systems are being aligned with employer demand.

Foreign founders can contact ChinaMNC on WhatsApp / WeChat at +86 153 1898 8535 for help registering and operating a company in China.

This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.