During the 12th meeting of the 14th Standing Committee of the Fujian Provincial People’s Congress on September 25, Li Lin, the Director of the Fujian Provincial Foreign Affairs Office, shared some remarkable statistics. He announced that Fujian has successfully introduced over 37,000 overseas Chinese-funded projects, attracting more than $110 billion in foreign capital.
Fujian is recognized as one of the key ancestral homelands for overseas Chinese, with around 15.8 million individuals spread across 188 countries and regions.
Li highlighted the province’s ambition to leverage its strengths to boost international communication and foster cooperation. He noted that Fujian intends to capitalize on its position as a central hub for overseas Chinese, tapping into resources from Fujian natives abroad, as well as from Hong Kong and Macau, to enhance global connections and promote deeper integration with foreign partners.
The focus will be on drawing overseas Chinese investments. Strategies will include encouraging overseas Chinese to introduce more foreign businesses and actively inviting Chinese merchants to major trade and economic events, such as the World Fujian Business Conference and the China International Investment and Trade Fair. Additionally, Fujian aims to organize events like the China Overseas Chinese Business Investment (Fujian) Conference and the RCEP Youth Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit to inspire overseas Chinese to invest and launch businesses back in their hometown.
In gathering the wisdom of overseas Chinese, Fujian has successfully hosted its inaugural China Overseas Chinese Intelligence Development Conference, which brought together 102 technological associations from around the world. A significant attendance of 516 representatives from younger generations of overseas Chinese was noted, with the majority being under 45. Li emphasized the importance of utilizing platforms like the Fujian Overseas Friendship Association and the World Fujian Descendants Meeting to facilitate regular communication with key overseas organizations, strengthen relationships with older generations of overseas Chinese, and connect with young expatriates.
In recent years, a series of policy initiatives have been rolled out to improve services for overseas Chinese, including the “Measures for the Identification of Overseas Chinese and Repatriated Chinese.” There have also been efforts to establish innovative mechanisms for addressing conflicts within the overseas Chinese community. Li confirmed Fujian’s dedication to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of overseas Chinese and their families, regularly implementing “Warm Actions” to enhance service levels and address the pressing needs of overseas Chinese.