In recent years, with support from local governments, regional sports events have been flourishing across China.
For many soccer enthusiasts, a ticket costing just a few dozen yuan offers not only access to a high-quality professional match, but also a range of customized benefits provided by host cities. From local tourism discounts to consumption incentives, these events have encouraged people to spend.
Such nationwide enthusiasm has not only helped promote city brands, but also brought substantial consumption and economic activity to host regions.
In contemporary Chinese parlance, it represents a two-way connection between governments and consumers, as well as between economic development and cultural entertainment.
In May, China’s rust belt region — Northeast China — launched a cross-provincial soccer league, known as the “Northeast City Football League”.
Covering Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces — as well as eastern Inner Mongolia — the region was once the country’s industrial powerhouse. However, amid China’s market-oriented reforms, it experienced decades of economic challenges and decline.
It was not until 2003, when the central government introduced the strategy of “revitalizing Northeast China”, that the region entered a new stage of development.
Like rust belt regions elsewhere in the world, Northeast China still retains valuable legacies from its industrial past, including a strong higher education foundation and early development of sports culture.
Take Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, as an example. The city’s industrial heritage, characterized by resilience, determination and a spirit of hard work, has provided fertile ground for football development and made Shenyang one of China’s important bases for youth football training.
For many fans, the NCFL naturally represents strength, speed and passion — qualities that have helped attract ticket buyers, media attention and broader public engagement.
Yet the significance of the NCFL goes far beyond soccer fans’ enthusiasm and increased consumption. From the perspective of revitalizing Northeast China, the league represents the return of three key elements essential for regional development.
First, the NCFL has refocused attention on the need for coordinated development across the entire region.
Unlike many regional leagues organized within individual provinces, the NCFL crosses four provincial-level regions, making it a collective effort among different parts of Northeast China.
The message it sends is clear: It comprises complementary advantages, coordinated planning and integrated development.
Historically, the central government’s strategic planning for Northeast China revitalization has always emphasized regional coordination. Today, the same principle applies.
Individual provinces acting alone cannot match the impact of joint efforts. Cooperation that creates synergy and achieves more than the sum of its parts is both rational and necessary.
In practice, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning have all included plans to build the “Harbin-Changchun-Shenyang-Dalian industrial and innovation corridor” in their respective 15th five-year plans.
Going forward, the three provinces and eastern Inner Mongolia should further coordinate efforts in areas such as industrial corridors, logistics networks and international trade channels.
For example, Northeast China should make better strategic use of Liaoning’s coastline, which is the region’s only access to the sea. Through institutional arrangements, coastal ports in Liaoning could become shared gateways to global markets for the entire region.
Achieving this goal requires local governments to move beyond regional interests and needs stronger coordination from the central government, viewing land-sea integration from the broader perspective of Northeast China revitalization.
Second, competition on the soccer field can help reinvigorate the region’s competitive spirit.
Regional coordination aims to create collective strength, but it does not mean eliminating competition — one of the most important foundations of a market economy.
At its core, competitive sports are about facing challenges and striving for victory. The battles on the pitch can serve as a metaphor for restoring the competitive drive needed for economic transformation.
In discussions about Northeast China revitalization, entrepreneurs have frequently highlighted institutional issues, including insufficient market awareness and underdeveloped market mechanisms. At their core, these challenges reflect the need for stronger competition.
The NCFL provides a vivid example of how competition can generate momentum. Competition brings victories on the field, but it can also create stronger market vitality in economic development.
The key task in practice is improving the business environment. Across China, building a market-oriented, law-based and internationally competitive business environment has become a broad consensus.
For Northeast China, further reforms are needed to enhance market vitality while ensuring that economic and social development follows the rule of law. Only through such efforts can the deeper constraints on regional revitalization be addressed.
Meanwhile, openness is also a crucial component of the business environment.
Northeast China should seek greater support for pilot programs aimed at expanding cooperation with neighboring countries, including Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Russia, and enhance its role as a growth hub in Northeast Asia.
Third, the determination demonstrated on the football field could inspire new breakthroughs in Northeast China’s comprehensive revitalization.
At Shenyang’s Tiexi Stadium, fans spontaneously chant “Shenyang will win”, with their voices echoing through the night. The spirit of victory reflects not only the city’s soccer tradition, but also a renewed confidence in the region’s future.
Northeast China, known as the “industrial cradle of the People’s Republic of China”, once created more than 1,000 “firsts” in the country’s industrial history, including producing the first batch of steel and manufacturing the first domestically produced jet aircraft.
The region’s strong industrial foundation remains the source of confidence for its revitalization. The return of a winning spirit can provide renewed motivation for achieving further breakthroughs.
Driven by this confidence, government officials and entrepreneurs are increasingly embracing a problem-solving mindset — finding ways forward despite challenges.
This means that in the years ahead, more new achievements are likely to become part of the ongoing story of Northeast China’s revitalization.
The writer is a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
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