Xi Jinping to host PM Modi in Mao’s private villa, boat ride on the cards
Several layers of security have been put in place in and around the hotel where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will stay during his visit to Wuhan, China.
world Updated: Apr 26, 2018 19:12 IST
Sutirtho Patranobis
Sutirtho Patranobis
Hindustan Times, Beijing
Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting in Tashkent on the sidelines of SCO Summit.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting in Tashkent on the sidelines of SCO Summit. (PTI File Photo)
Security has been tightened in Wuhan city’s downtown area where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to stay during his two-day informal summit with President Xi Jinping that is expected to reboot bilateral ties.
Several layers of security had been put in place in and around the hotel where Modi will stay and a large number of police personnel were deployed in the area by late Thursday afternoon.
Chairman Mao Zedong’s private villa, where Xi is expected to host Modi on Friday for their first meeting, was made out of bounds for tourists on Thursday.
The villa, opened to the public in 1993, was where Mao would often come from Beijing to spend a few days or weeks.It is built on the banks of the East Lake, another Wuhan attraction and on which Modi and Xi are expected to take a boat ride during their meeting.
By Thursday afternoon, security personnel had also been deployed around the lake.
Many local residents passing by the hotel where the Indian leader will stay stopped by to take photos after noticing the buzz of activity around it. Some of them had heard about the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to Wuhan.
Wuhan’s profile got an international boost in January when British Prime Minister Theresa May began her three-day China visit from the city, before flying to Beijing.
A recent survey by state broadcaster CCTV said the country’s happiest people live in Wuhan,the biggest city in central China and capital of landlocked Hubei province, a little more than 1,000 km south of Beijing.
It is rare, even unprecedented, for Xi to host a leadership summit outside Beijing but choosing Wuhan, a provincial capital and a second-tier city, reflects his vision to focus on emerging cities, which many outside China will never have heard of.
Vice-foreign minister Kong Xuanyou explained why Wuhan, which has the mighty Yangtze river flowing by, was chosen as the venue.
“We have taken multiple factors into account: Whether Prime Minister Modi has visited the city earlier, the bond of this place with India, as a representative city (of central China)... Wuhan is also an important hub for business, education, research and emerging industries. It is also a hub for inland waterway transport in China,” Kong told a news briefing.
Kong said in recent years, Hubei province and some states in India have intensified exchanges and expanded business cooperation.
“PM Modi has travelled to east, west, north and south of China but he is yet to visit central China. This will complete his tour of China,” he said.
And to top it all, Wuhan has emerged as China’s happiest city.
“CCTV’s ‘happiness index’took into accountfactors such as governance, economic strength, urban infrastructure, and recreational activities. This year's survey covered more than 100,000 households and 800 million internet users across China,” the Sixth Tone news website reported.
The city is an education hub, with some reports saying it has the world’s largest number of students for a single city.
“With more than 90 higher education institutions, including Huazhong University of Science and Technology, one of the country’smost prestigious schools, Wuhan is considered a hub for education and entrepreneurship, and has attracted considerable foreign investment,” the report said.
“In terms of investment in education and training, Wuhan outperformed all of its peers, including megacities Beijing and Shanghai — neither of which earned a spot in the top 10 for overall happiness.”
Happiness, a picturesque river bank and two leaders ready to shed and make history: The setting seems about right.
But whether Modi and Xi will emerge happier about the state of China-India ties from their summit in Wuhan, remains to be seen.
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