Recently, Chinese Path to Modernization and Private Economy “Xingfu Phenomenon” 30th Anniversary Symposium was held in Boxing County, Binzhou. For the first time, from the perspective of Chinese path to modernization, the economic phenomena that have occurred here since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the CPC have been examined, and the road to the development of private economy with Chinese characteristics has been summarized.

Farmer entrepreneurs in Xingfu Town dare to venture, try, do and innovate, igniting the “sparks” of the development of rural private economy in underdeveloped areas, which is of special historical significance and times value.

Xingfu, a small town in northern Shandong that has ushered in a new life because of reform and opening up, was once a “poor place”. After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the CPC, a group of farmers, represented by Wang Zhihua, from Zhaozhao Village, Xingfu Town, Boxing County, started from the simple repair and making of wooden food steamers, joined the tide of the market economy, and gradually brought up the four major industries of willow weaving, glue boiling, kitchen utensils, and black and white iron. At the end of 1993, more than 100 million-yuan households emerged in Xingfu Town, with only 33,000 people in total. The beneficial exploration of this family business gradually developing into a mixed economy through the form of shareholding cooperation has been named the “Xingfu phenomenon” by experts and scholars.

In pace with the continuous improvement of the socialist market economic system, the “Xingfu phenomenon” has rapidly fermented, and more than 3,000 commercial kitchenware enterprises, such as Jinbaite, Lubao, Jingdu, Huajie and Keyu have emerged. Xingfu Town has also become the largest stainless steel commercial kitchenware production base in China, and was awarded the title of “China Kitchen Capital” by the Kitchenware Chamber of Commerce of All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.

The “Xingfu Phenomenon” and “Binzhou Phenomenon” keep pace with the times, continue to expand their fields, and gradually expand to the all-round development of “eight qualities”, which are becoming vivid samples of the reform and development of China’s private economy.

Like the “Southern Jiangsu Model”, “Wenzhou Model”, “Jinjiang Model” and “Pearl River Model”, “Xingfu Phenomenon” has become a model for the development of private economy in China in the new era, providing ideas and choices for the economic and social development of underdeveloped areas, and exerting a positive influence on the development of private economy in China.