Xi Jinping’s thoughts on China’s urbanisation revealed in new speech
- Xi Jinping says China must limit city population sizes and continue developing city clusters on the east coast
- Inland western regions should avoid concentrating resources in a single city to prevent provincial wealth inequality
A newly published speech by President Xi Jinping has shed light on the direction of urbanisation in China, including limitations on the size of cities to prevent overcrowding and the development of urban clusters on the east coast.
China must control population density in its major cities, Xi said in a speech delivered on April 10, a transcript of which was published in the latest edition of Qiushi, an official Communist Party journal.
“It’s an economic law that industries and populations will concentrate in advantageous regions. But the size of any single city cannot expand indefinitely,” Xi said.
“The main urban areas of Beijing and Shanghai have a population density of over 20,000 per square kilometre (7,722 square miles), in comparison to about 13,000 people in Tokyo and New York.”
The economy of scale shouldn’t be the only factor to consider in terms of urban development. Instead, ecology and security must receive a higher priority