Find the "driving force". Can the major provinces in Northeast China stage a comeback?
On March 2nd, Xu Kunlin, Secretary of the Liaoning Provincial Party Committee, conducted research on key enterprises in the automobile industry chain in Shenyang. These include the Lydia Plant of BMW Brilliance Automotive's Tiexi Factory, which is a large-scale upgrade and transformation project of BMW and represents the largest single investment by BMW in China. There is also ZF Electric Drive Technology (Shenyang) Co., Ltd., invested and built by ZF Group, a global leader in automotive parts, which is mainly engaged in the manufacturing of new energy electric drive vehicle parts. And Shenyang EVE Energy Co., Ltd., which invested 10 billion yuan in Shenyang to build a R & D and manufacturing base for energy storage and power batteries.
During the research, Xu Kunlin emphasized that the automobile industry has a long industrial chain, high relevance, and strong driving force. It is an important pillar of advanced manufacturing and a key area for Liaoning to accelerate the replacement of old growth drivers with new ones. It is necessary to draw a detailed map for strengthening, supplementing, and extending the industrial chain, precisely carry out business investment promotion and industrial chain investment promotion to attract more upstream and downstream enterprises and related projects to settle in Liaoning, and build an industrial ecosystem with more agglomeration effects and synergistic advantages.
As a pillar industry of the national economy, the changes in the regional pattern of the automobile industry to some extent reflect the transformation and upgrading path of China's manufacturing industry. In 2025, 16 provinces had automobile production exceeding 1 million vehicles. Among the three northeastern provinces, Jilin, the birthplace of China's automobile industry, ranked 13th with a production of 1.4613 million vehicles, while Liaoning ranked 18th with a production of 844,300 vehicles.
For Liaoning, industry has always been the core support for its economic development. To revitalize Liaoning, industrial revitalization must come first. Not long ago, the GDP results of all 31 provinces in 2025 were announced. In terms of the total ranking, the 31 provinces basically remained stable, with only Chongqing overtaking Liaoning. The reason is that as an old industrial base, industry has dragged down Liaoning's growth. In 2025, the added value of industrial enterprises above the designated size in Liaoning increased by 0.6% compared with the previous year.
Chongqing, also an old industrial base, has made greater progress in industrial transformation and upgrading. In 2025, the added value of industrial enterprises above the designated size for the whole year increased by 5.9% compared with the previous year. Among them, the intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry cluster made outstanding contributions. In 2025, the added value of the intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry cluster increased by 13.4% compared with the previous year, and its contribution rate to the city's industrial enterprises above the designated size was 60.9%.
As pointed out in the Liaoning Provincial Government Work Report this year, during the 14th Five - Year Plan period, "the difficulties and challenges faced in revitalization and development are still severe and complex, and some problems and contradictions need to be urgently resolved." For example, "the support of scientific and technological innovation is not strong, the replacement of old and new growth drivers is not smooth, the traditional industries such as automobiles, oil, and steel are under great downward pressure, and the scale of emerging industries is small, making it difficult to make up for the decline in traditional industries..."
Previously, new energy vehicles have been identified by Liaoning Province as one of the ten strategic emerging industry clusters to be cultivated. During this research, Xu Kunlin emphasized that efforts should be made to promote transformation and upgrading, strengthen demonstration and leadership, support automobile enterprises to accelerate the "intelligent and digital transformation", promote in - depth integration and collaborative innovation among industry, academia, research, and application, accelerate the layout of the intelligent connected vehicle ecological system, and actively seize the new track of the new energy vehicle industry.
An excellent business environment and precise policy support are important guarantees for industrial development. On the first working day of the new year in 2026, Liaoning Province held a provincial - level conference on optimizing the business environment, establishing the optimization of the business environment as a "hard - core project" and a "top - priority project" that must be tackled, setting the tone for the start of the 15th Five - Year Plan.
During this research, "continuously creating an excellent business environment" was also highlighted. It is necessary to actively and proactively solve problems and do practical things for enterprises and projects, continuously improve comprehensive service and industrial supporting capabilities, make full use of the market's radiation - driving advantages, strive to expand automobile consumption, and accelerate the development and growth of the automobile industry cluster.
It is worth mentioning that after previously meeting with the senior management of automobile enterprises such as Li Auto, Geely Auto, and BMW Brilliance, the main leaders of the Liaoning Provincial Party Committee once again focused on the automobile industry, clearly stating that they should base on the industrial foundation, give full play to the leading and driving role of leading enterprises, accelerate the strengthening, supplementing, and extending of the industrial chain, and strengthen and expand the automobile industry cluster.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Urban Evolution Theory", author: Yang Huan. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.