Tianjin's explosive growth carries social cost

The north coast municipality of Tianjin, bordering Beijing, has grown dramatically in recent years, impressing residents and visitors and securing the promotion of its former Communist Party chief to the party's supreme decision-making body.

Its old streetscape of graceful, colonial-era residences and plain, six-floor apartment blocks for ordinary residents has been augmented by shiny skyscrapers and stylish suspension bridges. Its skyline features a multitude of cranes on countless construction sites.

Fixed-asset investment totalled 751.1 billion yuan (HK$926.9 billion) last year, having grown at an annual rate of 34.9 per cent since 2007, former Tianjin party secretary Zhang Gaoli told the municipality's party congress in May.

He was promoted to the party's supreme Politburo Standing Committee last week, after less than five years as Tianjin's party chief, and is expected to become the country's new executive vice-premier in March, presiding over the economy. He was succeeded yesterday by former Fujian party secretary Sun Chunlan.

Zhang saw Tianjin transformed from a messy backwater, overshadowed by Beijing, into a vigorous city whose growth rate has frequently led the nation - mainly thanks to the Binhai New Area, a 2,000 square kilometre development zone that has attracted investment from global giants including Airbus and Caterpillar.

The municipality's economy has grown at an annual pace of 16.5 per cent since 2007, much faster than the mainland's 9.7 per cent average.