National security is the foundation of national rejuvenation and an important foundation for the steady and long-term development of Chinese modernization. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during his inspection of Guangxi that it is necessary to "build the Pinglu Canal with high standards and high quality." Guangxi's coastal rivers and borders, backed by the southwest, adjacent to the Greater Bay Area, and facing Southeast Asia, has outstanding geographical location advantages and is an important ecological barrier in southern my country. As an important channel for Guangxi to develop its maritime economy and open up its sea in the inland region of my country, the Pinglu Canal is also a backbone project and a "national strategy" project of the new western land-sea channel. We must adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, unswervingly implement the overall national security concept, and promote the construction of the Pinglu Canal at a high level.

1. Deeply understand the importance of safety of Pinglu Canal

China is a country famous for its water control. The canal has a long history. From the Grand Canal of the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Millennium Ling Canal to the Grand Canal of Beijing and Hangzhou, it has achieved a function transformation from flood control and irrigation to canal transportation. It is not only an important transportation route for the ancient "Maritime Silk Road", "Onland Silk Road" and "Grassland Silk Road", but also an important tool for ensuring and maintaining national unity. It has had a profound impact on the local economy, society and culture and has become an important security guarantee to support and continue the sustainable development of Chinese civilization.

As the first Grand Canal to connect rivers and seas since the founding of New China, the Pinglu Canal is a river-sea connection project between the main stream of the Xijiang River and the Beibu Gulf. It is about 134.2 kilometers long and has huge political, economic, cultural and security values. Politically, the construction of the Pinglu Canal demonstrates the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China and the superiority of the socialist system. Economically, as a key project of the new western land-sea channel, the Pinglu Canal will effectively promote regional economic development, help deepen economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN and other regions, and inject new impetus into the joint construction of the "Belt and Road". Culturally, the Pinglu Canal that connects rivers and seas will open a new chapter in the integration of river civilization into marine civilization. In terms of security value, the Pinglu Canal will become an important barrier to the security of the southern border of my country.

2. Fully understand the main contents of Pinglu Canal safety

Development is the hard truth, and safety is the hard truth. We must focus on the "five points" to effectively prevent and resolve risks in key areas and actively create a safe environment for the construction of Pinglu Canal.

Find the right foothold and make every effort to safeguard national security. Promote the spatial layout of development along the Pinglu Canal, optimize the pattern of land space development and protection, and "draw borders" for the development of "clear bottom line" and "define borders". It is crucial to coordinate the relationship between the construction of the canal and the growth of industrial development along the region and the optimization of urban and village systems. Through scientific planning, the functional zoning along the canal will be clarified, and the three control lines of permanent basic farmland, ecological protection red line, urban development boundary, as well as various rigid control boundaries such as historical and cultural heritage protection line, disaster risk prevention and control line will be coordinated, so as to reserve sufficient space for the comprehensive development of the Pinglu Canal, and promote the concentration and development of factors and industries along the canal. Focusing on the main waterway of the canal, we will give priority to ensuring the port industry-city space, guide the integrated development of port industry-city, and promote the benign interaction between port industry and cities. Closely combine canal construction with the adjustment and optimization of urban and village systems along the route, strengthen the formulation and implementation of village planning along the route, and guide villages with conditions to develop characteristic agriculture, leisure agriculture and rural tourism. At the same time, we must pay attention to ecological environment protection, promote land consolidation and ecological restoration in areas along the route, improve land use efficiency and ecological environment quality, and ensure that the high-quality development of the maritime economy is coordinated with ecological protection.

Find the right center point and make every effort to maintain economic security. Economic security is the core of national security. Accelerate the construction of the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt, focus on the real economy, promote the accelerated development of new quality productivity, vigorously develop strategic emerging industries, high-tech industries, green environmental protection industries, and modern service industries, and create a new engine of green growth. Relying on the border port industrial park and the China-ASEAN Industrial Cooperation Zone, we will strengthen the new quality productivity of advanced processing and manufacturing industries along the border, and do a good job in the four strong industrial articles of "original font size", "old brand", "new font size" and "foreign font size", and promote the high-end, intelligent and green industry. Develop and strengthen the forestry industry, cultural and tourism industry, elderly care industry and big health industry, and strengthen the integrated development of the "agricultural, cultural, tourism, sports and health" industry. Vigorously develop the marine economy and port-side industries, create new economic growth points, deepen exchanges and cooperation with ASEAN countries, continue to hold the China-ASEAN Environmental Cooperation Forum, and continuously shape new advantages and new momentum for high-quality development of border ethnic areas.

Find the right positioning point and make every effort to maintain ecological security. We must firmly establish the concept that green waters and green mountains are gold and silver mountains, place protection of Guangxi's ecological environment in an important position, adhere to ecological priority, intensive and economical, and green and low-carbon development, protect the beauty of mountains and rivers of the land of Bagui, and further promote the transformation of ecological advantages into the development advantages of Pinglu Canal. Accelerate the construction of China (Guangxi)-ASEAN Joint Research Institute of Ecological and Environmental Science and Technology, encourage Guangxi environmental protection enterprises to participate in the construction of ASEAN's "Belt and Road" and face huge challenges in water ecological security, such as: the project breaks the pattern of the natural water system, and the river ecosystem is undergoing reconstruction; the urgent need for coordinated development of shipping construction and ecological protection, and the current large-scale canal water ecological security guarantee technology system is not yet perfect, etc. By incorporating the "Technology and Demonstration of Water Ecological Security Guarantee for Large Canal Projects" project into the "15th Five-Year Plan" National Key R&D Plan Project, it provides scientific and technological support for ensuring the water ecological security of Pinglu Canal, and promotes the coordinated development of canal shipping and ecological protection. Focus on improving the inland waterway system for rivers and seas, unblocking the railway network, and fully connecting and connecting the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Build a modern inland waterway system, promote the expansion and upgrading of the Xijiang shipping trunk line, dredge and upgrade the Zuojiang, Youjiang, Hongshuihe, Yujiang, Liujiang and other waterways, improve the navigation capacity and safety of the waterways, and build a "sea expressway" connecting the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and connecting ASEAN. Establish and improve the emergency linkage mechanism for cross-basin, cross-regional and cross-departmental environmental joint prevention and control, increase environmental law enforcement efforts in key river basins such as Pinglu Canal and Beibu Gulf, and strengthen joint prevention and control of cross-regional illegal transfer of hazardous waste with Hunan, Guangdong, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. Implement the joint action initiative of Guangxi, Guangdong, Hunan and other eight provinces and regions on building important ecological barriers in the south of the motherland.

Find the right fit and make every effort to maintain the security of the industrial chain. Actively give full play to the unique location advantages and resource endowments along the Pinglu Canal, and promote the deep integration and division of labor and cooperation between the economic belt and the upstream and downstream of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area industrial chain. Cultivate and develop new quality productivity. The Pinglu Canal Economic Belt should keep up with the development of cutting-edge science and technology, formulate special plans around cooperation in the application of artificial intelligence technology, promote the demonstration application of artificial intelligence technology in key industries and fields, actively build a technology innovation center with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and accelerate the construction of a scientific and technological innovation force centered on Nanning and Qinzhou, radiating and driving the Beihai, Fangchenggang, Yulin and other places. Focus on key areas such as electronic information industry, petrochemical industry, and high-end equipment manufacturing industry, actively connect with the upstream and downstream new quality productivity of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and deeply integrate into the industrial chain of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Explore the construction of cross-border enclave parks. Cross-border enclave parks can break geographical restrictions and integrate resources from different countries and regions for our use. Make good use of platforms such as Nanning (Shenzhen) ASEAN Industrial Cooperation Innovation Center, and based on the advantageous industries of the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt, actively undertake cross-border industries, and jointly build a cross-border industrial chain and value chain system for the ASEAN region. Create a China-Vietnam border cross-border industrial demonstration zone, and focus on the development of characteristic industrial clusters such as new energy vehicles and ASEAN fruit processing. Build a "Greater Bay Area Headquarters Guangxi Base ASEAN Market" model and promote leading enterprises to set up regional manufacturing centers in the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt.

3. Strengthen and implement important guarantees for the safety of Pinglu Canal

Pinglu Canal safety work is highly political and involves a wide range of areas, and it is necessary to strengthen system integration and mechanism innovation. We must conscientiously implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and work requirements, give full play to our political and institutional advantages, improve our position, coordinate our promotion, strengthen guarantees, and make every effort to prevent risks, ensure safety and stability, and provide strong guarantees for accelerating the safety construction of canals.

Strengthen political guarantees. Adhere to the Party’s absolute leadership over the safety of Pinglu Canal. We must conscientiously implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on the construction of the Pinglu Canal into a high-quality project, a green project, and an honest project, organize and implement the "Work Plan for the Construction of the Pinglu Canal with High-Quality Party Building in High-Quality Organs", and clearly integrate the Party’s leadership into all aspects of the construction of major projects such as the Pinglu Canal in the Western Land-Sea New Channel. Taking the work idea of ​​"party building leads, coordinated development, group service, and strengthening the sea chart", the implementation of the national security responsibility system and the prevention and resolution of major risks will be included in the comprehensive assessment and key supervision tasks, so as to ensure direction control, policy support, and investment guarantee.

Strengthen scientific and technological guarantees. Use artificial intelligence to empower the Pinglu Canal with technology to support the construction of the Pinglu Canal. We will be demand-oriented and innovation-led, strengthen networking, optimize dataization, and speed up intelligence, focus on the bottlenecks and lock-points in canal safety construction, and promote the research and development of key technologies and equipment. Focusing on horse road hub, Qishi hub, ship lock efficient, safe water transfer system, concrete pouring, etc., we will carry out forward-looking research and strategic layout, accelerate the implementation of the intelligent development strategy, adopt a large number of new technologies, use the safe and efficient operation of digital systems, promote technology exchanges and sharing, and use technology empowerment and efficiency to promote the improvement of the speed of smart canal construction. Pinglu Canal is not only a major project in Guangxi, but also an important carrier of major scientific research projects in the country.

Strengthen institutional guarantees. Strengthen comprehensively strengthen canal safety risk monitoring and early warning. Guangxi regards the supervision of the construction of Pinglu Canal as the "number one project" to strengthen political supervision and implements it in all aspects of the entire process of canal construction. Adhere to the concept of full-cycle management, establish a supervision and guidance group for the Pinglu Canal Construction Integrity Project, establish a resident supervision mechanism, promote on-site supervision to the front line of construction, dynamically improve the "two lists" of risks and capabilities, and build a common monitoring and early warning service platform. Formulate 14 measures to serve and guarantee the construction of Pinglu Canal, continue to deepen the creation of a safe canal, continue to implement the provisions of the responsibility system to maintain social stability, and do not relax in public security prevention and control, conflict resolution, production safety, disaster prevention and mitigation, etc., to better ensure the safety and stability of Pinglu Canal construction.

Strengthen team support. Adhere to the principle of "hard work as the key, innovation as the soul, speak with performance and let the people evaluate it", and enhance the ideological, political and action consciousness of achieving the "two safeguards". With the urgency of being unable to sit still, unable to wait, and unable to slow down, the Pinglu Canal has 49 youth commandos and nearly 2,000 young people built across the Pinglu Canal. Focusing on the training camp of the youth commando team and taking the lead in the "urgent, difficult and dangerous re-issue" tasks, Pinglu youth continue to improve their business capabilities, build the "Century Project" with extraordinary courage and wisdom, and strive to forge a loyal, clean and responsible canal iron army in the new era. Pinglu Canal Youth Commando won the 2025 China Youth May Fourth Medal collective honor.

Strengthen publicity and guarantee. Carry out in-depth canal safety publicity and education. Canal safety must be included in the necessary content of the theoretical study group of Party committees (party groups) at all levels, and promote safety awareness into the mind and heart. Enrich and expand the forms of canal safety education, combine the publicity and education activities of the National Security Education Day, hold theme exhibitions such as "West to the Sea - Pinglu Canal·Millennium Lingqu Guangxi Canal Construction Science Popularization Exhibition (Beijing Station)", and carry out canal safety education in government agencies, schools, enterprises, communities, villages, military camps, and the Internet in a solid manner, and give full play to the comprehensive role of traditional media and new media, enhance the publicity of canal culture in all aspects, and create a strong atmosphere where everyone participates in and everyone has their responsibilities.

(Author: Liu Xiangting, Director of the Cooperation and Exchange Department of the Guangxi Government Office in Beijing and a first-level researcher)