https://www.scmp.com/rss/324308/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Peggy Ye Peggy Ye A hotel operator’s planned entry into Xiongan New Area southwest of Beijing highlights a tentative but growing alignment between Hong Kong’s private sector and the state-backed development project, as leaders renew efforts to accelerate the zone’s transformation into a hi-tech growth hub. Hong Kong-based Langham Hospitality Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Great Eagle Holdings, said on Thursday that it had signed a management agreement with China Xiongan Group Public Service Management to... https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3351113/hong-kongs-langham-group-among-first-invest-beijings-city-future-xiongan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3351113/hong-kongs-langham-group-among-first-invest-beijings-city-future-xiongan?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Apr 2026 09:30:08 +0000 Phoebe Zhang Phoebe Zhang Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for developing the Xiongan New Area into an innovation hub to drive high-quality growth. Xi made the call on Monday during his first inspection tour of the “city of the future” following the “two sessions” annual parliamentary meetings and the launch of China’s 15th five-year plan. The state-level megacity in Hebei province, about 100km (62 miles) southwest of Beijing, is Xi’s signature project aimed at taking the urban pressure off the capital. Xi visited... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3347690/xi-jinping-pushes-xiongan-embrace-science-and-technology-build-city-future?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3347690/xi-jinping-pushes-xiongan-embrace-science-and-technology-build-city-future?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:29:46 +0000 Victoria Bela Victoria Bela Chinese firms have signalled plans to launch more than 200,000 internet satellites, filing submissions with a UN agency just as Beijing accused Elon Musk’s SpaceX of crowding shared orbital resources. A dozen or so submissions from various Chinese satellite players were filed with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) at the end of last month. The biggest projects – CTC-1 and CTC-2 – were for 96,714 satellites each and filed by the newly established Institute of Radio Spectrum... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3339493/china-applies-put-200000-satellites-space-after-calling-starlink-crash-risk?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3339493/china-applies-put-200000-satellites-space-after-calling-starlink-crash-risk?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Jan 2026 13:00:10 +0000 Ng Kang-chung Ng Kang-chung Mainland China’s methods in achieving rapid development in recent years offer “valuable insights” for Hong Kong to advance its planned Northern Metropolis megaproject, the city’s finance chief has said. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also pledged that Hong Kong would align with national development strategies and stay focused on accelerating the megaproject near the mainland border, a key platform of the city’s Greater Bay Area integration. Hong Kong would also leverage its role as a... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3330380/hong-kong-can-learn-mainland-chinas-rapid-push-development-paul-chan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3330380/hong-kong-can-learn-mainland-chinas-rapid-push-development-paul-chan?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Oct 2025 10:50:35 +0000 Cannix Yau Cannix Yau Mainland China’s planning and construction methods for major new areas in Beijing and Hebei province offer valuable reference points for Hong Kong’s development and financing of the Northern Metropolis megaproject, the finance chief has said while meeting a top central government official in the capital. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, who led a 40-strong government delegation to the two locations, shared his takeaways on Friday as he wrapped up his trip to the Beijing Municipal... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3330235/beijing-hebei-projects-offer-inspiration-hong-kongs-northern-metropolis?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3330235/beijing-hebei-projects-offer-inspiration-hong-kongs-northern-metropolis?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Oct 2025 10:00:49 +0000 Xinyi Wu,Carol Yang Xinyi Wu,Carol Yang Xiongan, China’s “city of the future” – a project years in the making, championed by President Xi Jinping – is slowly coming to life, as major state-owned enterprises (SOEs) begin relocating to the new metropolis in Hebei province. Sinochem Holdings and China Huaneng Group are among the latest to officially relocate their headquarters to Xiongan this month, each bringing about 1,000 employees, according to local authorities. They join other SOEs like Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Railway Company, which... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3329950/chinas-soes-breathe-life-xi-jinpings-city-future-xiongan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3329950/chinas-soes-breathe-life-xi-jinpings-city-future-xiongan?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Oct 2025 14:00:09 +0000 Mandy Zuo,Sylvia Ma Mandy Zuo,Sylvia Ma At a surprising meeting of China’s political elite, it was declared that a sea change is needed in the nation’s urban development – shifting from a phase of large-scale, incremental expansion to one focused on optimising and enhancing existing resources. The message, coming amid a persistent real estate slump and slowing urbanisation, was delivered at the two-day Central Urban Work Conference that ended on Tuesday. In 2015, Beijing held its first such conference in decades, and it kicked off a... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3318305/chinas-dated-urban-development-model-must-change-beijing-says-rare-meeting?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3318305/chinas-dated-urban-development-model-must-change-beijing-says-rare-meeting?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Jul 2025 12:00:15 +0000 China’s futuristic megacity of Xiongan – a signature project of President Xi Jinping – has taken yet another step towards completion with a reinforced urban management structure. The Xiongan New Area, about 100km (62 miles) south of Beijing, now has 25 government agencies to guide its continued expansion, city authorities said after a meeting on Saturday. Among these are four district management committees, and 21 municipal departments – similar to existing urban centres, according to details... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3292658/chinas-city-future-xiongan-speeds-towards-ambitious-goals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3292658/chinas-city-future-xiongan-speeds-towards-ambitious-goals?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:00:09 +0000 To fund a futuristic megacity that has been one of President Xi Jinping’s pet projects for the better part of a decade, China has accelerated the issuance of ultra-long special bonds – intent on ensuring that the sprawling city is “basically completed” by 2035. The government of the Xiongan New Area, which is about 100km (62 miles) south of Beijing, sold five batches of the government bonds – all earmarked explicitly for the region’s development – in the third quarter. The five batches raised... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3288391/xi-jinpings-city-future-just-had-record-quarter-construction-financing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3288391/xi-jinpings-city-future-just-had-record-quarter-construction-financing?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 Nov 2024 01:00:16 +0000 Ever since China launched the Xiongan New Area seven years ago, a burning question has been hanging over the project: will it become the futuristic “modern socialist city” touted by the top leadership, or just an expensive ghost town predicted by the sceptics? The city, about 100km (60 miles) south of Beijing, was designed to reduce population pressure on the capital and speed up development in the surrounding province of Hebei and neighbouring mega-port of Tianjin. It will not be completed... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3274316/can-chinas-city-future-xiongan-really-convince-people-swap-beijing-life?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3274316/can-chinas-city-future-xiongan-really-convince-people-swap-beijing-life?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Aug 2024 22:00:13 +0000 Yuke Xie Yuke Xie Beijing’s office market is reeling from the departure of large state-owned enterprises (SOes) and tech giants from the city centre, causing rents to decline as much as 30 per cent lower from a year ago, according to market observers. The slump is likely to persist, as the relocation of large office occupiers, aimed at reducing Beijing’s “noncore” functions, has freed up significant commercial real estate, they said. As a result, Beijing’s overall office vacancy rate has reached the highest level... https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3272057/large-scale-departures-beijing-city-centre-leave-gaping-hole-office-towers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3272057/large-scale-departures-beijing-city-centre-leave-gaping-hole-office-towers?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Jul 2024 02:00:19 +0000 In a network of 380km (236 miles) of tunnels that run through the sprawling expanse underneath Xiongan in northern China, researchers have unlocked a low-cost, high-precision, indoor navigation system. The team of researchers at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), led by associate professor Lu Zhaoming, combined China’s BeiDou technology and indoor 5G networks to create a navigation system for what is set to be the world’s biggest underground city. “This advanced system is... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3242691/new-signal-tech-guiding-way-under-chinas-next-megacity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3242691/new-signal-tech-guiding-way-under-chinas-next-megacity?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Dec 2023 23:00:20 +0000 China should learn from the practices of the European Union to transform the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area – one of President Xi Jinping’s three major strategies for regional integration – into a common market, a think tank said on Thursday. Doing so would mean aligning rules and standards to facilitate greater flows of people and goods throughout the region, according to a proposal released by the Guangzhou Institute of the Greater Bay Area, headed by prominent political scientist... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3243557/chinas-plans-greater-bay-area-common-market-should-consider-eu-model-think-tank-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3243557/chinas-plans-greater-bay-area-common-market-should-consider-eu-model-think-tank-says?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Dec 2023 14:00:14 +0000 President Xi Jinping wants to see a stronger push to develop China’s largest economic zone – the Yangtze River Economic Belt – with an emphasis on not only high-quality and green growth, but also security. The region, which covers 11 provinces and municipalities along the world’s third-longest river, needs to take a long-term perspective on ecological conservation and economic growth, Xi said on Thursday at a high-level meeting in Jiangxi, one of the participating provinces. Instead of striving... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3237870/xi-jinping-tells-chinas-biggest-economic-zone-balance-growth-and-security-and-no-more-mega-projects?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3237870/xi-jinping-tells-chinas-biggest-economic-zone-balance-growth-and-security-and-no-more-mega-projects?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 Oct 2023 13:00:27 +0000 The Beijing authorities pledged over a decade ago to turn the capital into a “most liveable” world-class metropolis within the next 10 years. But despite a spree of infrastructure building, their ambitions took a blow after a torrential downpour in the summer of 2012 killed 37 people and effectively paralysed the city of over 20 million. China’s NGO teams rushing to flood-hit areas ‘told to wait for official invite’ While Beijing has clearly made progress in recent years in cutting pollution and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/3230417/floods-highlight-how-chinas-grand-ambitions-beijing-area-carry-heavy-cost-outlying-areas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/3230417/floods-highlight-how-chinas-grand-ambitions-beijing-area-carry-heavy-cost-outlying-areas?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Aug 2023 12:16:06 +0000 Top officials from Hebei province have visited some of China’s biggest state firms in Beijing as part of President Xi Jinping’s push to relocate some leading institutional headquarters to one of Xi’s signature projects. The visit came just over a month after Xi’s latest inspection trip to Xiongan New Area in an apparent attempt to dispel reluctance about the project and give another strong push to move “non-essential institutions” from China’s capital to the zone in neighbouring Hebei... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3223921/top-provincial-officials-survey-state-owned-enterprise-hqs-help-president-xi-jinping-move-key?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3223921/top-provincial-officials-survey-state-owned-enterprise-hqs-help-president-xi-jinping-move-key?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Jun 2023 09:16:54 +0000 China is eight years into its grand plan to develop the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region into an integrated megalopolis and much of the success of the scheme will rest on the political will of Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to observers. The camaraderie among the new leaders of the three regions would also be a critical factor, they said. The mega project would realise an ambition to reshape Beijing into one of the world’s grand political and cultural capitals, while its surrounding areas... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3221166/xi-jinping-gives-chinas-mega-capital-jing-jin-ji-plans-nudge-high-powered-visit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3221166/xi-jinping-gives-chinas-mega-capital-jing-jin-ji-plans-nudge-high-powered-visit?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 May 2023 04:00:08 +0000 Is Xiongan a new Pudong or a Potemkin? Is it the latest Shenzhen or just a Shangri-la? President Xi Jinping took a bullish attitude during his recent inspection of the city-in-progress, describing it as “sophisticated” and “a miracle”. He also said practice had shown the Communist Party Central Committee’s decision on building the Xiongan New Area is “entirely correct”. Xiongan is a done deal, politically, given that it’s a prestige project backed by the party, but the build is still incomplete... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3220507/strict-city-planning-lack-dynamism-could-limit-xiongans-growth-its-even-finished?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3220507/strict-city-planning-lack-dynamism-could-limit-xiongans-growth-its-even-finished?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 May 2023 08:15:07 +0000 President Xi Jinping has hailed the development of a new city outside Beijing as a “miracle” and ordered officials to speed up plans to relocate institutions from the capital. Xi made the remarks on Wednesday as he inspected Xiongan New Area, a signature project first announced in 2017. The goal is to relocate some state-run institutions, including state-owned enterprises and universities based in Beijing, to the site, which is about 100km (60 miles) southwest of Beijing, to ease the pressures... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3220215/chinese-president-xi-jinping-signals-fresh-drive-move-state-institutions-out-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3220215/chinese-president-xi-jinping-signals-fresh-drive-move-state-institutions-out-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 May 2023 11:00:26 +0000 China is planning to improve the supply of and access to housing rentals through greater credit support and expanding the financial channels available for leasing as the country seeks to stabilise the property sector and address problems among some demographics, particularly young home seekers. The 17 measures, introduced in a draft released on Friday, would enhance financial institutions’ capacity for lending to firms that lease residential property, according to a statement by the People’s... https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3211536/china-expand-financial-support-home-rentals-amid-broader-support-property-market?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3211536/china-expand-financial-support-home-rentals-amid-broader-support-property-market?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Feb 2023 09:00:10 +0000 Turbulent times are seeing Beijing dust off its old playbook that calls for ramping up infrastructure investments across the country, in an industrious bid to offset damage to the world’s second-largest economy by ongoing coronavirus restrictions and a faltering property sector. Indeed, the pace of infrastructure investment continues to accelerate. Year-over-year growth was 8.6 per cent in the first nine months of 2022, or 0.3 percentage points higher than during the first eight months. Hundreds... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3197048/what-are-chinas-major-infrastructure-projects-economically-fraught-2022?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3197048/what-are-chinas-major-infrastructure-projects-economically-fraught-2022?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Oct 2022 03:00:11 +0000 As China gradually recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, travel restrictions have been relaxed; but this has not made getting around as a foreigner any easier. During a reporting trip to Xiongan New Area in China’s northern Hebei province, I was rejected, for the first time, by a hotel I had already paid for because of my travel document. Even after explaining I had recently completed a 14-day mandatory quarantine at a designated facility in Beijing, they were unmoved. “We are just not taking... https://www.scmp.com/economy/article/3101181/how-coronavirus-has-made-travel-china-whole-lot-harder-foreigners?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/article/3101181/how-coronavirus-has-made-travel-china-whole-lot-harder-foreigners?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Sep 2020 06:00:14 +0000 Countless towering cranes dominate the skyline in the Xiongan New Area of northeastern Hebei province, as construction ramps up at ground zero for one of China’s most ambitious projects – building a dream city from scratch. China has vowed to spend billions on infrastructure projects this year in a bid to boost the nation’s economic recovery and stabilise the job market after the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Xiongan, located about a two-hour drive south of central Beijing, is in... https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3100820/construction-chinas-city-future-highlights-beijings-renewed?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3100820/construction-chinas-city-future-highlights-beijings-renewed?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Sep 2020 03:30:15 +0000 Xiongan New Area, President Xi Jinping’s attempt to build a bustling new metropolis just outside Beijing, is pushing ahead with the construction of comprehensive smart city infrastructure, offering a taste of the future for city dwellers. The former backwater consisting of three counties in Hebei province is building an intelligent urban management system that can cover everything “from the sky, to the underground to terminals and end devices”, according to a statement from city authorities on... https://www.scmp.com/tech/innovation/article/3027415/president-xis-dream-city-xiongan-pushes-ahead-smart-city?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/innovation/article/3027415/president-xis-dream-city-xiongan-pushes-ahead-smart-city?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Sep 2019 05:55:27 +0000 China’s big three state-owned airlines are engaged in a tussle for the rights to fly into and out of the new mega airport in Beijing, which will be among the world’s biggest when it opens in September. Intensive lobbying, high-level horse trading and political manoeuvring are dominating a drama which will help define the future of the world’s biggest airline market. The three state-owned airlines are scrapping it out for landing slots at Beijing Daxing International Airport, in an episode of... https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3008696/chinas-airlines-jostle-position-new-mega-airport-rare-glimpse?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3008696/chinas-airlines-jostle-position-new-mega-airport-rare-glimpse?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 May 2019 05:03:31 +0000 Politics is always intertwined with the economy, especially when it comes to state-driven strategic projects. Take, as a good example, the announcement of the blueprint for China’s “Greater Bay Area” strategy to transform Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province into the world’s largest innovation and development powerhouse. It was met with applause by many in Hong Kong, but also sparked anxiety among others who fear the city’s political and economic status will be diminished in... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/2187481/why-greater-bay-area-which-includes-hong-kong-more?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/2187481/why-greater-bay-area-which-includes-hong-kong-more?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Feb 2019 10:06:18 +0000 Beijing has renewed its push to achieve President Xi Jinping’s ambitious plan to create a new metropolis in an industrial and environmental backwater after a two-year lull filled with uncertainty and criticism. A 13,000-word government document on turning Xiongan New Area in north China’s Hebei province into a city of innovation by 2035 was published by Xinhua on Thursday, just a week after Xi paid his second visit to the region in two years. Pundits said the combination of the document and the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/2183804/xi-jinping-visits-xiongan-new-area-show-impatience-lack-progress-future?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/2183804/xi-jinping-visits-xiongan-new-area-show-impatience-lack-progress-future?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 27 Jan 2019 09:00:00 +0000 This past week, as some of the deadliest wildfires on record continued to blaze in California, the San Francisco Bay Area, including Silicon Valley, has experienced air quality in the “hazardous” range – far worse, on some days, than that of Beijing during its notorious 2013 smog, before the Chinese government took measures to reduce pollutants from coal combustion. For residents of San Francisco, their present “airpocalypse” brings home the reality that, with unchecked global warming,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2175569/rival-us-and-chinese-innovators-have-common-cause?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2175569/rival-us-and-chinese-innovators-have-common-cause?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Nov 2018 15:30:15 +0000 Government officials behind Xiongan New Area, the Chinese president’s ambitious plan to transform dusty plains into a dream city, have engaged software company ConsenSys as a consultant on the use of blockchain, in another example of China adopting the technology behind cryptocurrencies despite bans on the digital money itself. ConsenSys will advise the Xiongan government on how to use blockchain and provide software solutions, according to a ConsenSys statement on a memorandum of understanding... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2156396/xiongan-calls-us-company-consensys-bring-blockchain-technology-xi-jinpings?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2156396/xiongan-calls-us-company-consensys-bring-blockchain-technology-xi-jinpings?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Jul 2018 04:00:00 +0000 China aims to supply a new economic zone being built near Beijing, known as the Xiongan New Area, with 100 per cent clean electricity, according to Xinhua News Agency. The goal is part of an ambitious plan by Chinese President Xi Jinping to remake a backwater region into a glittering new technology and innovation hub. Electricity will account for more than half of the energy consumption at Xiongan, Xinhua reported Sunday, without elaborating. State Grid Corp of China has established a subsidiary... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2142919/china-sets-100-cent-clean-power-target-xi-jinpings-new?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2142919/china-sets-100-cent-clean-power-target-xi-jinpings-new?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Apr 2018 07:17:11 +0000 The City of London has set up a “green finance centre” with a Chinese partner to fund sustainable development projects, and the first beneficiary may be Xiongan, a district earmarked by President Xi Jinping as the site for a massive new city in northern China. The move comes as London’s financial district tries to increase its business links with China and expand overseas markets ahead of Britain leaving the European Union. The centre will work with the China Green Finance Committee to develop... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2139122/city-london-set-green-finance-centre-help-build-xis-dream-city?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2139122/city-london-set-green-finance-centre-help-build-xis-dream-city?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Mar 2018 10:58:36 +0000 From fighting poverty to cutting corporate taxes, some of China’s most prominent businessmen brought their best ideas to one of the nation’s most important political gatherings. The annual meetings of China’s legislature and political advisory body provided executives from companies including Tencent Holdings and automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group with a platform to lobby for policies and show their support of government initiatives. Here’s where corporate leaders stand on the top issues... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2137832/cdrs-xiongan-here-are-hot-topics-chinas-business-titans-nations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2137832/cdrs-xiongan-here-are-hot-topics-chinas-business-titans-nations?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:08:55 +0000 China should consider cutting taxes in Xiongan New Area economic zone outside Beijing to attract world-class talent as the country ramps up its efforts to build itself into a global innovation powerhouse, Baidu CEO Robin Li Yanhong said.  Xiongan, created last year under direct orders from President Xi Jinping, consists of three counties in Hebei province and will take over some secondary functions from Beijing to alleviate the traffic and population pressure in the Chinese capital. The new city... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/2135573/baidu-ceo-calls-lower-taxes-xis-dream-city-xiongan-attract-talent?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/2135573/baidu-ceo-calls-lower-taxes-xis-dream-city-xiongan-attract-talent?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Mar 2018 13:45:00 +0000 Stocks linked to the Xiongan New Area economic zone outside Beijing that was hand-picked by President Xi Jinping added momentum to a rally in Chinese equities on expectations the state will soon embark on big projects in the area. Companies based in Beijing and the northern province of Hebei ranging from cement maker BBMG Corp and property developer China Fortune Land Development surged at least 6 per cent in Shanghai trading on Wednesday. In a meeting chaired by Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli a day... https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/2126630/stocks-linked-xiongan-new-area-rally-china-vice-premier?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/2126630/stocks-linked-xiongan-new-area-rally-china-vice-premier?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Jan 2018 05:01:39 +0000 Farmers in Rongcheng county often stop to stare at the cement trucks running through their cornfields outside this dusty, frigid town south of Beijing. They are watching the destruction of their livelihoods for the promise of a more prosperous future. Chinese President Xi Jinping stood in nearby fields in April to herald a project “crucial for the next millennium”. Officials described a massive hi-tech hub three times the size of New York City that would resuscitate poor areas and transform how... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2126631/can-chinas-communist-party-build-innovation-capital?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2126631/can-chinas-communist-party-build-innovation-capital?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Jan 2018 04:59:42 +0000 Hebei Construction Group, one of the first builders of the Chinese President’s dream city outside Beijing to tap the capital markets, has received a cold shoulder from investors, as its HK$1.93 billion (US$248 million) initial public offer was left partially subscribed. Investors submitted bids for 42.76 million shares, less than 99 per cent of the number of shares on offer, the Baoding-based company said in a statement. The company’s shares are offered at the bottom of a price range of between... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2124296/capital-raising-plan-xi-jinpings-dream-city-builder-elicits-yawn?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2124296/capital-raising-plan-xi-jinpings-dream-city-builder-elicits-yawn?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 Dec 2017 06:24:53 +0000 A share offering this week of up to HK$2.32 billion (US$297 million) by China’s Hebei Construction will be the first listing in Hong Kong of a company linked to Beijing’s ambitious Xiongan special economic zone project. Xiongan New Area, established in April and just a couple of hours south of Beijing, is part of China’s efforts to transfer some functions out of the increasingly crowded capital and find new growth drivers led by innovation and technology. Some analysts have put the possible... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2122843/hebei-construction-us297m-ipo-first-hong-kong-target-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2122843/hebei-construction-us297m-ipo-first-hong-kong-target-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Dec 2017 13:30:00 +0000 Workers have planted 33,000 trees within 12 days at the site chosen for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “dream city”, the local authorities have claimed. The management committee for Xiongan, the area outside Beijing chosen by Xi to become a new hi-tech hub, announced the tree-planting drive on Weibo on Saturday, saying they planned to create “splendid vegetation to last a thousand years”. About 260,000 plants from nearby nursery gardens will be planted within a 667-hectare area by the end of the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2121599/let-thousand-trees-bloom-chinese-officials-start-drive-give-xi?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2121599/let-thousand-trees-bloom-chinese-officials-start-drive-give-xi?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Nov 2017 06:00:39 +0000 Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambition to build a dream city in the country’s industrial heartland is unlikely to come true without more aggressive market-oriented reforms, a researcher affiliated with China’s state planner has warned. The comments by Qiao Runling, an urban development expert at the National Development and Reform Commission, follows the pledge to transform the Xiongan New Area into the next business hub along the lines of Shanghai and Shenzhen. Speaking at a forum held by... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2120491/xi-jinpings-dream-city-could-be-killed-bureaucracy-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2120491/xi-jinpings-dream-city-could-be-killed-bureaucracy-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 Nov 2017 08:45:45 +0000 Xiongan, the area outside Beijing that was hand-picked by Chinese president Xi Jinping as the dream city for his “thousand-year” plan to transform the capital, will be developed into a high-technology hub and showcase of the country’s latest innovations, said the Communist Party chief of the district. The district will seek out companies engaged in information technology, biotechnology, new energy and new materials, providing them with various incentives and benefits to invest and establish... https://www.scmp.com/tech/enterprises/article/2116178/what-will-china-build-xi-jinpings-dream-city-it-biotech-new-energy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/enterprises/article/2116178/what-will-china-build-xi-jinpings-dream-city-it-biotech-new-energy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Oct 2017 23:01:49 +0000 President Xi Jinping’s ambitious scheme to build a new city at Xiongan in northern China will not only change the landscape of the little known area in Hebei province, but also aims to create a new world underground. Chinese geologists are examining subterranean conditions of Xiong, Rongcheng and Anxin counties, which will become a new district to rival special economic zones such as Shenzhen and Pudong in Shanghai, in the hope of building structures under the ground as well as above, state... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2099987/parts-xi-jinpings-dream-city-be-built-underground?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2099987/parts-xi-jinpings-dream-city-be-built-underground?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Jun 2017 06:15:15 +0000 Despite the rhetoric, Beijing is not planning to make Xiongan New Area another Shenzhen. Shenzhen is a megacity of 12 million people, while Xiongan’s population will be kept at 2.5 million for the foreseeable future. The best planning clue may be found outside China – in Seongnam city near Seoul. Seongnam’s population is 10 per cent of Seoul’s. Xiongan’s planned population is 10 per cent of Beijing’s. To speed up Seongnam’s development, the Korean government relocated major state utilities... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2094073/how-greater-seoul-model-can-help-beijing-realise-its-vision?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2094073/how-greater-seoul-model-can-help-beijing-realise-its-vision?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 May 2017 06:01:08 +0000 Five years into his rule, and in the middle of a long campaign against corrupt factions in the ruling elite who had captured much of the economy and accumulated vast wealth, the national leader sought to consolidate his position by ordering the construction of a new city on virgin land south of the existing capital. In building his new city, he not only hoped to leave a physical monument to his own grandeur for all posterity, but he also aimed to create a new cultural, commercial and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2092332/what-chinas-xiongan-new-area-can-learn-ancient-egypt?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2092332/what-chinas-xiongan-new-area-can-learn-ancient-egypt?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 May 2017 02:01:09 +0000 Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli has stressed the need for “steady” planning in an ambitious new economic zone the government has touted as a driver of growth in the country’s north, state-run Xinhua reported on Sunday. The zone, in Xiongan, Hebei province, around 100km southwest of Beijing, will house some of Beijing’s relocated “non-capital functions”. It covers an area of 100 sq km but will eventually be expanded to 2,000 sq km. Xiongan is not Shenzhen or Pudong: why latest new area may... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2093330/china-stresses-steady-planning-new-economic-zone?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2093330/china-stresses-steady-planning-new-economic-zone?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 May 2017 12:00:13 +0000 A county in China’s northern Hebei province, where President Xi Jinping worked for three years in the early 1980s, is stepping up its bid to upgrade its status and become a “state-level new district”. The move comes only a month after plans were unveiled of Xi’s ambition to make another area of Hebei, Xiongan, a new city. Zhengding, a county under the administration of Hebei’s capital Shijiazhuang, is now going through due process to become a state district, allowing it to take over some of the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2092591/chinese-county-where-xi-jinping-worked-steps-bid-get?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2092591/chinese-county-where-xi-jinping-worked-steps-bid-get?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 May 2017 04:01:59 +0000 President Xi Jinping has put his dream for the Xiongan New Area in old hands. During a site inspection in February, septuagenarian former Shanghai mayor Xu Kuangdi, the man who played a key role in transforming that city’s riverside Pudong backwater into China’s financial hub, was photographed at Xi’s right hand. Xu, now 79, was mayor of Shanghai from 1995 to 2001. His new role in Xi’s “thousand-year” plan to develop the city of Xiongan, encompassing three counties in central Hebei, is a... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2091973/why-chinas-leader-put-his-new-city-dream-old-hands?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2091973/why-chinas-leader-put-his-new-city-dream-old-hands?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 May 2017 06:00:30 +0000 China’s leaders relish pointing out how the country’s socialist system is superior to capitalism in the way it can pool resources from all sides to accomplish big things. On that score, they certainly have a list of stunning achievements to boast about. In 2008 alone, China rallied national resources to host the successful Summer Olympics Games in Beijing, and organised a remarkable rescue and recovery operation in the wake of a powerful earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people in... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2091159/go-big-or-go-home-what-plans-2000-sq-km-metropolis-say-about?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2091159/go-big-or-go-home-what-plans-2000-sq-km-metropolis-say-about?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Apr 2017 05:02:47 +0000 China’s decision to develop a new economic zone in a Hebei backwater is a great thing for the nation and “a big strategy for a thousand years”, according to President Xi Jinping. It was a bold declaration for a Chinese leader who has not yet finished his first five-year term and who leads a Communist Party that has existed for less than 100 years. Xi wants to build a “perfect” place in Xiongan, according to the vision presented by the official Xinhua news agency. The Xiongan New Area would be... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2090809/can-chinas-president-realise-his-perfect-city-dream?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2090809/can-chinas-president-realise-his-perfect-city-dream?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Apr 2017 12:45:15 +0000 Garbage dumps litter the shoreline of Baiyang Lake, 120km south of Beijing, and its waters contain high levels of pesticides from corn fields and antibiotics from animal farms. Hidden pipelines discharge toxic pollutants from nearby factories straight to the bottom of the lake, once called the “kidney of the North China plain” for its waste-filtering function but now one of China’s dirtiest lakes. Some scientists say the pollution is likely to worsen as the Chinese government proceeds with... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2088150/polluted-lake-heart-xi-jinpings-new-city-dream?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2088150/polluted-lake-heart-xi-jinpings-new-city-dream?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Apr 2017 07:00:00 +0000 Can Beijing replicate the remarkable successes of Shenzhen and Pudong in Hebei’s (河北) Xiongan (雄安), the 19th national new area designated by Beijing? After the first two, Shanghai’s Pudong and Tianjin’s ( 天津 ) Binhai, so dubbed in 1992 and 2006, respectively, the creation of more such areas has gathered pace since 2011, with 10 of them so christened in the two-year period between 2014 and 2015. After Xiongan, more will follow. While some have been successful, others have become little more than... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2088819/xiongan-not-shenzhen-or-pudong-why-latest-new-area-may?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2088819/xiongan-not-shenzhen-or-pudong-why-latest-new-area-may?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Apr 2017 05:30:45 +0000