Beijing is the world’s most competitive city in the era of Covid-19, as the Chinese capital’s successful containment of the infectious disease amid a worldwide pandemic elevated it to the top of an annual ranking amid curtailed travelling and upended economic activities, according to the study’s author. Beijing was ranked highest because of the number of co-authored scientific research papers published, according to the 2020-2021 Global Urban Competitiveness Report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. Paris was in second place, followed by London, Shanghai, New York, Boston, Sao Paulo, Madrid, Milan and Toronto to round out the top 10. The study, in its sixth annual instalment, canvassed 1,006 of the biggest urban centres on Earth – each with at least 500,000 residents – to reflect their industrial base and their connectedness with the global division of labour. The more indispensable a city is to its worldwide network, the higher is its rank. The coronavirus pandemic , which has sickened 67 million people worldwide and claimed nearly 1.5 million lives at the latest count, has upended economic activity, mobility and global connectivity, rendering the usual measurements of competitiveness irrelevant, said Professor Ni Pengfei, assistant director of the National Academy of Economic Strategy of the CASS, the lead author of the report. “The impact of the pandemic on air travel will last for many years, and this poses a serious threat to cities’ global connectivity,” Ni said. “Online scientific research activities such as online conferences have strengthened the connections between researchers, and the number of co-authored scientific research papers published has increased significantly, which means connectivity of scientific researchers will become an important driving force for global connectivity.” The study underscores how the persistent pandemic – and how governments and societies are adapting to contain and overcome the disease – will have long-term effects on global economies and populations. China, with 86,646 confirmed cases and 4,634 deaths – ranked 78th in the world by caseload – is the only major economy to be growing this year, and very likely well into 2021, according to estimates by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. As many as 256 papers on Covid-19 research were published as of March 8 – three days before the World Health Organization declared the disease a global pandemic – the highest among all provinces and cities in China, with nearly half involving collaborations with other provinces, according to Cell Press . The CASS study did not provide additional data to support its ranking. “Scientific research output has gained more importance and is certainly a key differentiation factor for a city’s competitiveness ahead,” said Vincent Tsui, an analyst covering Asia macroeconomics at Gavekal Research. “The leading rank of Beijing looks robust, given the resources being deployed on R&D. The technological competitiveness [of Beijing] has also reflected on the gaining dominance on Chinese enterprises in global market shares of a variety of products.” A city’s “global connectedness” in remaining relevant in a post-pandemic world, such as through deepening engagement in global networks is also important, according to A.T. Kearney, which raised Beijing by four rungs to the world’s fifth-most competitive city after New York, London, Paris and Tokyo in its 2020 Global Cities Index study . “As a result of the pandemic, cities will need to adapt and find new means of securing global flows of trade, investment, ideas and people in a fragmented world,” A.T. Kearney said. With an urban population of 21 million residents in 2018, Beijing is one of China’s biggest urban centres. The city, the most infected city in the world 17 years ago during the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak , had a second bout of Covid-19 infections in June when its 55-day streak of zero new cases ended. Municipal authorities put the city on lockdown, and batch tested the entire population as 256 cases were reported. Within a week, the so-called second wave was wiped out. “The challenge for Beijing is the tension and risk of technology decoupling with the Western world – the connectivity criteria,” Tsui said. “That has been exacerbated by the trade war, US sanction on US tech firms and rising scepticism towards China in the Western society.” Ranked according to pre-pandemic measurements, New York remained the world’s most competitive urban centre for the fourth consecutive year, owing to its status as the premier global financial marketplace, and its connectivity to the innovation centres of Silicon Valley and industries. Singapore is in second place, followed by Tokyo. Using pre-Covid-19 measurement, Beijing ranked 21st in global competitiveness. Three Asian cities made it to the top 10 in 2020, one fewer than last year. Hong Kong, ranked 11th this year, fell out of the top 10 in the past four years from sixth place in 2013. The study also zoomed in on the Greater Bay Area (GBA) , the cluster of 11 cities including Hong Kong and Macau in southern China with a combined population of nearly 70 million people and US$1.65 trillion in economic output. Compared with other clusters around the world, southern China’s GBA still pales in competitiveness against the Tokyo Bay area comprising the Japanese capital with Yokohama and Chiba prefecture, and the Hudson River Bay area comprising New York and New Jersey. China’s GBA however is more competitive than the San Francisco Bay, the Hangzhou Bay – hometown of this newspaper’s owner Alibaba Group Holding – and the Bohai Bay near Beijing, according to the study. Shenzhen, China’s technology capital, is the most competitive city in the GBA, followed by Hong Kong and the Guangdong provincial capital of Guangzhou. With an economy larger than Hong Kong, Shenzhen is home to the world’s seventh-largest company Tencent Holdings , the world’s largest 5G telecommunications gear maker Huawei Technologies , DJI the market leader of recreational drones and China’s biggest insurer Ping An Group . The city of Foshan is in fourth place, followed by Macau , Dongguan, Zhuhai , Zhongshan, Huizhou , Jiangmen and Zhaoqing , according to the study. Shenzhen ranked 9th globally, followed by Hong Kong in 11th and Guangzhou in 42nd. Foshan, Macau, Dongguan and Zhuhai were also among the top 200 globally. The difference in terms of economic competitiveness between the Greater Bay Area cities has shrank, with those ranking the highest, including Shenzhen and Hong Kong, dropping in rank, while those in the middle, including Donguan, Zhuhai, Huizhou and Jiangmen, increased compared to five years ago.