An interview with Wang Houliang, a key figure in Hefei’s rise, reveals that the city’s success with companies like CXMT did not happen overnight. He explains that 25 years ago, the city had already made integrated circuits its top priority for investment attraction.

While many see Hefei as a "venture capital city" that has made all the right bets, Wang insists that true understanding is the prerequisite for daring to tackle what others see as impossibly difficult tasks. Wang Houliang himself is a testament to this long-term vision. In 2000, his arrival as one of two PhDs recruited from Tsinghua University was a landmark event for talent introduction in Anhui Province.

Holding a doctorate in Materials Science from Tsinghua, he went on to hold key positions, including Deputy Director of the Hefei Economic and Technological Development Zone, Director of the Hefei Municipal Development and Reform Commission, and Deputy Director of the Anhui Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology. In 2020, he joined CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies) as a senior executive. After retiring, he became the president of the Anhui New Display Industry Association. He personally participated in the planning, introduction, and construction of major industrial projects in Hefei, including BOE, Visionox, SeeYA, and CXMT. He is a witness and driving force behind the city's phenomenal industrial breakthroughs over the past two decades.

In an exclusive interview coinciding with CXMT's successful listing, Wang Houliang shared the profound logic behind Hefei's journey. He noted that while society is keenly interested in Hefei’s industrial development, some find it "too risky to emulate" while others think it is "too difficult to learn." His insights reveal that this is not a single-point success but a systemic breakthrough rooted in deep industrial logic. He emphasizes that while no successful case can be fully replicated, the core lesson is to firmly hold the conviction of industrial breakthrough: it is the extension of roots that grows every forest and creates a thriving ecosystem. The most critical action is to plant the right trees in the right places, right now.

Pursuing the 'Dream of Integrated Circuits'

You promoted an integrated circuit development plan shortly after arriving in Hefei in 2000. Was this plan related to the eventual landing of CXMT in Hefei?

Wang Houliang: After earning my doctorate in 2000, the nation called on top university talent to contribute to the national economy. Tsinghua University decided to send some outstanding student cadres to local governments and large state-owned enterprises. I was selected and appointed as Deputy Director of the Hefei Economic and Technological Development Zone. Upon arriving in May, I was approached in June by Professor Kuang Yanxiang, a veteran expert from the 43rd Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, who was deeply involved in integrated circuits. She encouraged me to use my background to build a strong electronics and integrated circuit industry in Hefei, thereby shouldering the responsibility of safeguarding the national economy and security. With introductions from her and other experts, I met many local specialists and entrepreneurs, which gave me initial ideas for developing a microelectronics industry in Hefei.

We subsequently brought in companies like Guojing Electronics, Jie Min Electronics, and Teradyne, which focused on IC packaging, power devices, and testing equipment. This helped us gradually formulate a development path for the electronics information industry. In 2001, the Hefei Economic and Technological Development Zone planned a microelectronics engineering base on the shores of Nanyan Lake, integrating design, manufacturing, packaging, and testing, with an initial investment of 4 billion yuan. This plan received full support from the Anhui Provincial Planning Commission and was designated the province's top investment attraction project starting in 2001, receiving priority support for five consecutive years. This shows that Anhui Province has placed great emphasis on the electronics information industry since that time.

In April 2007, Hefei held a major project promotion meeting, setting the goal of realizing the "Dream of Integrated Circuits and the Dream of Electronics Information." I was later transferred to head the Hefei Municipal Development and Reform Commission. We proactively sought guidance from the Ministry of Information Industry and commissioned CCID Consulting to draft the city's first development plans for integrated circuits and electronic information. These plans clearly identified new displays and integrated circuits as the two core areas of focus. After approval by the municipal party committee and government, they were fully implemented.

After BOE was established in Hefei, its new display industry significantly boosted the development of the integrated circuit sector. At that time, the massive demand for display driver chips was entirely dependent on imports, highlighting a critical weakness in the supply chain. To address this, we proactively approached Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor, and with capital from Hefei's state-owned assets, we jointly established Nexchip, focusing on display driver chips to precisely fill the local display industry's supply gap. After years of cultivation, Nexchip has continuously expanded and upgraded. With a cumulative investment of over 50 billion yuan and ongoing construction of its third and fourth phases, it was listed on the STAR Market in 2023 and recently went public in Hong Kong to raise funds for expansion. It has grown from producing only display driver chips to covering MCU, CIS, automotive, and home appliance chips, becoming the third-largest wafer foundry in mainland China.

Driven by the strong new display industry, seven display chip companies, including Nexchip, SeeYA Technology, iRay, Xin Huicheng, Qizhong Technology, Loongson, and Ecooptics, have agglomerated and developed in Hefei, all listing on the STAR Market. This rapidly cultivated a relatively mature semiconductor industry soil. At the same time, this complete "screen and chip" ecosystem attracted Lenovo to establish Lianbao Technology in Hefei, building a production base capable of manufacturing 40 million laptops annually. The agglomeration of terminal manufacturers further generated demand for other high-end chips. Leaders from Lenovo Group conveyed to Hefei an urgent need for domestically produced DRAM memory chips. This led Hefei to seriously study the possibility of introducing a DRAM chip company. After failing to attract an overseas company, we partnered with Beijing's GigaDevice, a leading domestic NOR Flash memory chip design company, to co-invest in CXMT. This partnership aimed to tackle the DRAM technology and industrialization challenge, making CXMT

the only company in China integrating DRAM design and manufacturing.

Ending the 'Screen Pain' Once and for All

You mentioned the driving role of the new display industry on the integrated circuit industry. Hefei's full effort to bring in BOE and develop the new display industry was the first step in a series of 'phenomenal breakthroughs.' Why was this step taken?

Wang Houliang: In 2004, we conducted in-depth research at Hefei Haier Information to get their advice on attracting investment. To our surprise, the company's head delivered a stark warning. At the time, traditional CRT TVs were bulky, had thin profit margins, and were about to be phased out. LCD TVs were the future, but 70-80% of an LCD TV's cost was in the large-size LCD panel, which couldn't be produced domestically. These panels had to be imported via Qingdao, adding 50-60 yuan in round-trip freight costs per TV, while the net profit per TV was just over 100 yuan. The enterprise was putting in the work but making no real money. The company head bluntly said that if Hefei couldn't attract a panel industry, the TV production lines would likely be moved back to Qingdao.

At that time, Hefei was striving to become the national home appliance production base. Color TVs, being the core category with the highest technological content and added value, were crucial. Losing them would dim the entire Hefei home appliance industry. Driven by this urgent need for industrial survival, we immediately reported to the city's top leadership, vowing to secure a liquid crystal panel project. We set our sights on the industry leader, BOE Technology. As a large state-owned enterprise, BOE had the technology, talent, and willingness to develop, but they lacked funding. However, at the time, they were somewhat dismissive of Hefei as an inland city. Over more than three years, we made over 30 visits without success.

A turning point came in 2006. Through Tsinghua University, we connected with Professor Zhang Baizhe, an independent director of BOE at the time. After a six-month investigation, he recognized our work ethic and sincerity. On April 5, 2006, Sun Jinlong, then Secretary of the Hefei Municipal Party Committee, met with Professor Zhang. The secretary had just come from a construction site, his trouser legs rolled up, feet, legs, and shoes covered in mud. He spoke knowledgeably about financing, leaving a deep impression on the professor. Professor Zhang stated that Hefei's determination was firm and its financing plan was outstanding. He proposed moving Hefei from the last place among four competing cities to the first for BOE's consideration. In early 2008, Professor Zhang delivered the key news: BOE was profitable for the year and was about to launch its 6th-generation line project. Hefei's opportunity had arrived!

During the 2008 National People's Congress, both the provincial and municipal party committees and governments of Anhui and Hefei joined forces to secure this project. On March 11, officials from the Anhui Provincial Development and Reform Commission and Hefei City went to Beijing for initial talks. On March 29, the Hefei Municipal Party Committee Secretary led another delegation to Beijing for further negotiations, clearly stating that Hefei would do its utmost to build the 6th-generation line project with BOE and fully guarantee its implementation, dispelling all doubts about Hefei's financial and resource capabilities. On April 11, BOE's core team visited Hefei. We deliberately set the meeting venue on a boat on Emerald Lake to symbolize the government and enterprise sharing the same boat, weathering storms together to overcome China's "screen pain." This gesture deeply moved the BOE team. To unify the city's thinking and focus efforts, we had previously submitted over 30 special reports to the municipal party committee, continuously presenting the project's feasibility, industry prospects, and risk assessment to the four major leadership teams, government departments, and younger cadres, achieving comprehensive ideological mobilization. On September 11, 2008, an enlarged meeting of the Hefei Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee decided to leverage the city's full strength to cooperate with BOE in building the 6th-generation line. The very next day, witnessed by provincial leaders, we formally signed the strategic cooperation agreement. The project company was established in October 2008, construction began in April 2009, and it was completed and put into production in October 2010. This major high-tech project with a 17.5 billion yuan investment was successfully launched in just one and a half years—compared to the industry norm of over three years—creating what is known as "Hefei Speed."

Relying on the 6th-generation line, we completely ended the Chinese electronics industry's "screen pain." As consumption upgraded and demand for large-screen TVs surged, the 6th-generation line's capacity became insufficient. We once again partnered with BOE. In 2012, we signed an agreement for an 8.5th-generation line project with a total investment of 33.5 billion yuan, which was successfully put into operation in 2014, capable of mass-producing 50-inch-class displays. To seize the global industry commanding heights, we aspired to surpass Japan by building the world's highest-generation production line. In 2015, the world's highest-generation Hefei BOE 10.5th-generation line, with an investment of 45.8 billion yuan, was signed and commenced construction, starting mass production in 2017. With this line, China's new display industry achieved a strategic leap from catching up and running alongside to leading globally. By 2020, China's new display industry held 54% of the global market share, surpassing South Korea in scale. The industry was truly transformed into a strength for China, and Hefei became a global core hub for the new display industry.

The True Hardcore Barrier

In 2020, CXMT was at a critical stage of development. You resigned from your position as Deputy Director of the Anhui Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology to join CXMT as a senior executive. What were your considerations at that time?

Wang Houliang: In 2016, I started working at the Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, overseeing electronic information and informatization. In line with the provincial party committee and government's directives, we provided support to CXMT as much as possible and were deeply aware of the immense difficulty and urgency of accelerating the project. However, integrated circuits are an exceptionally challenging field. If display driver chips were a weak link in the supply chain, then DRAM memory chips are the true hardcore barrier and the core choke point of the semiconductor industry. A tiny DRAM chip, half a centimeter in size, integrates 10 to 30 billion transistors and various components. The process precision is at the nanometer level. The difficulty of research, mass production, and iteration is extremely high, requiring enormous investment. By 2020, CXMT was on the eve of a critical breakthrough in technology, capacity ramp-up, and market penetration. Hefei's spearheading financial commitment had already exceeded 50 billion yuan. With the sudden outbreak of the pandemic, the company faced numerous difficulties in funding, production line R&D and debugging, and material transportation. The company urgently needed someone who understood both the enterprise and industry as well as the government to build a bridge for government-enterprise collaboration. To further accelerate the CXMT project, it was necessary to mobilize elite forces and organize more resources for a joint effort. It was against this backdrop that I joined CXMT.

I believe that the reason some things are not decisively pursued is a lack of understanding. It is precisely because Anhui Province and Hefei City have a deep understanding of these industries that they dare to "go deep into the water" on things others perceive as very difficult, committing more resources to them. With the three-tier support from the national, provincial, and municipal levels, CXMT ultimately achieved technological independence and large-scale production, completely breaking the long-standing foreign monopoly. It has become the world's fourth-largest and China's only company capable of independent, large-scale DRAM production, effectively filling a development gap in our country's memory chip industry.

No Clever Tricks, But the Will to Do the Hard Work

Phenomenal breakthroughs like BOE and CXMT have garnered widespread attention. As a witness to this process, why do you think these breakthroughs happened?

Wang Houliang: In 2002, we were pushing to bring in a Fortune 500 project. During this process, the then Party Secretary discussed the difficulties of attracting investment. In his view, the city was in a "dead end": large outside companies universally demanded "five exemptions and five halvings" in tax breaks, while SMEs demanded "two exemptions and three halvings." If all public benefits were ceded to enterprises, the government would have no revenue to improve social amenities, ensure people's livelihoods, or meet various public needs. He asked us to find a way to prevent companies from making excessive demands for concessions while ensuring quality enterprises would stay in Hefei. My response was, "There are no clever tricks, but we can do the hard work."

At the time, home appliances and automobiles were Hefei's two main industrial chains. The focus of investment attraction was largely on finished home appliances and complete vehicles. However, the most difficult and core parts of these chains were never the final assembly but the key components and parts. In the home appliance chain, chips, display panels, evaporators, condensers, compressors, and motors were the critical bottlenecks. In the automotive chain, engines, transmissions, automotive motors, and new energy batteries were the key areas for industry breakthroughs. These core component industries require long investment cycles and are difficult to cultivate. A single enterprise cannot accomplish the layout and breakthrough on its own. This is precisely where the government can exert its power and make a difference. From an economic perspective, it's an effective measure for the government to use its "visible hand" to correct market failures. When market mechanisms cannot independently complete industry cultivation and fill supply chain gaps, government intervention is needed. The Secretary thought my point was valid and encouraged us to explore and actively promote industrial investment in Hefei.

By focusing on seizing the key links of the leading industries and accomplishing difficult but urgently needed projects to promote high-quality industrial development, this became a crucial internal driving force for Hefei's industrial breakthroughs. It was precisely because we took the lead in deeply cultivating and laying out core components and core technology segments, filling the critical shortcomings of the industrial chain, that we laid a solid foundation for various finished product manufacturers to subsequently settle in Hefei. It is also thanks to this complete core industry chain support that all of Hefei's home appliance manufacturers have remained rooted in the city without a single one leaving. The result is that enterprises actively settle and develop well, contributing to Hefei by creating jobs and paying more taxes. This is the key to Hefei's success in industrial investment. In the process of industrial investment and project introduction, we have always adhered to our judgment standards: identifying whether a project aligns with long-term development trends, and distinguishing between short-lived projects and high-quality industries with long-term development potential. Through our own analysis, hiring top-tier consulting firms, seeking advice from higher authorities and enterprises, and combining the reputations and experiences of industry experts, we find that a project's feasibility, its industrial prospects, and even an entrepreneur's management capability—whether they can manage a 100-person or a 10,000-person enterprise—are all things that can be clearly seen.

Furthermore, Anhui's relatively advanced fault-tolerance mechanism has fostered a culture of encouraging innovation and tolerating failure, providing strong support for our bold exploration of industrial investment and the layout of emerging industries. For example, for some early-stage industrial investment projects, the fault tolerance rate could be as high as 50%, and in some cases, even 80%. It is this inclusive and prudent policy environment that has allowed us to confidently experiment with emerging industries and tackle core industrial chains, ultimately forging Hefei's unique path of industrial development.

Seven Key Lessons from the Experience

CXMT's successful listing on the STAR Market has sparked widespread discussion about Hefei and Anhui's industrial development. What lessons can be drawn from this experience?

Wang Houliang: The significant growth of Hefei's and Anhui's advantageous industries over the past two decades is no accident. It is the result of long-term, deep cultivation, scientific policy-making, and proactive action. The core can be summarized into seven key lessons. First, adhere to long-termism and persistently cultivate the industry. Hefei's leading industries were not built overnight but are the result of decades of continuous effort. The automotive industry started in the 1960s, and the home appliance industry in the 1970s. For decades, the city has stayed its course, never wavering, continuously accumulating an industrial base, perfecting the industrial chain, and cultivating an industrial ecosystem. This deep foundation is the bedrock of industrial development. Second, insist on an effective market and follow the rules to select the best and eliminate the weak. All industrial layouts and project introductions strictly follow the laws of the market economy, not subjective decisions. Whether deploying strategic emerging industries or upgrading traditional ones, it is always based on the development needs of enterprises and the laws of industrial development. While precisely attracting high-quality leading companies and emerging industry projects, we strictly follow market principles to eliminate outdated business models, achieving continuous industrial structure optimization and upgrading. Third, insist on a proactive government that precisely solves core problems. The core of a proactive government is to accurately identify the main contradictions and their principal aspects within the complex contradictions of industrial development. Focusing on the two core leading industries of home appliances and automobiles, we abandoned extensive investment attraction, precisely locked onto the weakest and most core bottlenecks in the industrial chain, and targeted key gaps like chips, display panels, and core components. This precise and targeted approach fundamentally enhanced the integrity and core competitiveness of the industrial chain, creating a globally important industrial base. Fourth, insist on scientific decision-making to strictly control project risks. Decisions on major industrial projects are never made blindly. Taking the BOE project as an example, we specifically hired two national-level professional consulting agencies to conduct back-to-back SWOT analyses and compile professional feasibility study reports. These reports comprehensively identified the opportunities and potential risks of the project, allowing us to thoroughly assess the pros and cons and prepare risk mitigation plans. Fifth, insist on seizing opportunities and efficiently implementing projects. Major opportunities for industrial development are fleeting. The ability to make quick decisions and implement them precisely is key to success. Major projects like BOE, Nexchip, and CXMT are all fruits of seizing once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. For the BOE project, we reached a cooperation intention on September 7, 2008, the Standing Committee of the Hefei Municipal Committee held an enlarged meeting to decide on it on September 11, and the agreement was officially signed on September 12. This demonstrates extreme efficiency in decision-making and execution, firmly grasping the development window. Sixth, insist on building teams and cultivating core cadres through practical combat. Major industrial projects like BOE and Visionox are industrial campaigns involving tens of billions of yuan in investment and tens of thousands of personnel. In the process of advancing these projects and tackling industrial development, we trained people in real combat, forging a versatile cadre team that understands industries, investment attraction, and difficult challenges. These talents, tempered by real-world experience, have become core pillars in various industries across Anhui Province, providing broad talent support for the province's continuous industrial iteration and upgrading. Seventh, insist on risk aversion and building a solid compliance bottom line. In the process of laying out and promoting major government-led industrial projects, we strictly implemented the "six separate" mechanism for project management, ensuring strict control over the entire process of project approval, planning, design, construction, supervision, funding allocation, and audit verification. We built a comprehensive defense line against various risks, including those related to party conduct and integrity, legal issues, funding, environmental protection, and safety. By plugging loopholes and hidden dangers in project implementation, we ensured that all major industrial projects were advanced in a standardized, safe, stable, and efficient manner, achieving high-quality development.