Capital 'a European city surrounded by African countryside'
Government think-tanks have warned that the capital's galloping economy has created a 'political and social stability-threatening' poverty belt around Beijing and Tianjin, according to the Blue Book on China's Regional Development, released yesterday.
About 2.7 million people live in poverty in 32 poor counties around the two cities, according to the book, a joint product of social sciences academies from the respective regions.
'The poverty belt around Beijing and Tianjin is as poor as the poorest areas of western China,' and by some measures even poorer, says the report, co-authored by Yang Lianyun and Li Hongmin , researchers from the Hebei Academy of Social Sciences.
According to standards adjusted by the central government in 2004, poverty is defined as a net annual income of less than 668 yuan a head.
The poverty belt in Hebei province has seen its situation worsen as the development of neighbouring Beijing and Tianjin has drained its already limited resources.
Four-fifths of Beijing's water and 93 per cent of Tianjin's are diverted from the surrounding areas of Hebei, regions with fragile environments and frequent natural disasters.
