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China’s new megacity Xiongan takes shape near Beijing with residential area ready by summer 2023
China’s new megacity Xiongan takes shape near Beijing with residential area ready by summer 2023
As a sign of his determination to advance the project, Xi brought some of the country’s most senior figures with him, including three most trusted members of the Politburo Standing Committee: Premier Li Qiang, director of the General Office of the Communist Party’s Central Committee Cai Qi, and first Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang.Two Politburo members – the party’s new personnel chief Li Ganjie and Vice-Premier He Lifeng – were also present, along with dozens of ministerial-level officials, who had earlier been ordered to start planning to transfer the headquarters of more state-owned enterprises and financial, research and public institutions from Beijing.On the first day of his trip, the president visited a plot in Cangzhou to learn how wheat is planted on saline-alkali land using agricultural machinery before inspecting the coal dock at the Port of Huanghua. Xi called for local ports to be upgraded to better develop Cangzhou as a hub to transport coal from mines in the west and north of China to other parts of the country.
The next morning, he visited the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation research institute and the International Biomedical Industry Park in Shijiazhuang, to view the chip production process and assess developments in biomedicine. He encouraged researchers to make breakthroughs in cutting-edge technologies in China’s quest for tech self-reliance.
Xi signals fresh drive to move Chinese state institutions out of Beijing
On the last day of his inspection trip, while presiding over a meeting promoting the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Xi urged more effort to promote work related to these two critical projects “with enthusiasm and diligence”, to push the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to a higher level and to make the region a pioneer and example for the pursuit of Chinese modernisation.
He said the coordinated endeavours of Beijing’s two new wings were necessary to address Beijing’s “big city malaise” and he reminded the team to balance development between the two new wings and their surrounding areas, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Xi, the paramount leader of China’s ruling party, state and military, first proposed an initiative to ease congestion in Beijing in 2014.
The country’s state planner soon proposed a mega plan to move existing Beijing’s municipal administrative bodies to eastern Tongzhou district and build Xiongan New Area in Hebei’s Baoding, which will host the state-owned enterprises and tertiary education and research institutions relocating from Beijing.
The Xiongan and Beijing new administrative centre plans were approved by the Politburo in 2017 and 2018 respectively, creating the core components of the “coordinated development plan of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region”.
Both projects have been elevated to the status of “key national development strategies”, a sign of the strong political drive to move them forward.
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Construction in full swing to build China’s ‘city of the future’, Xiongan
Construction in full swing to build China’s ‘city of the future’, Xiongan
By the end of 2022, the cumulative investment in key projects in Xiongan New Area exceeded 510 billion yuan (US$72.3 billion) with an additional 200 billion yuan to be invested this year.
Beijing officials also committed more than 800 billion yuan to its new urban centre in the 14th five-year plan from 2012 to 2025.
Both projects caused controversy among some of China’s city planning experts and the development of Xiongan has faced resistance because the landlocked area is not close to any regional commercial hubs.
Moving to Xiongan means those relocated are likely to lose their Beijing hukou, the household registrations document giving them access to Beijing’s superior health care and education facilities.
Many Chinese experts have pointed out that the Xiongan terrain is 8 to 9 metres below the regular flood level, requiring extensive filling work to prevent flooding. The quality of Xiongan’s underground water and Baiyang Lake – among the most polluted in China – has also sparked concern.
But during the tour, Xi hailed the decision to build Xiongan as “completely correct” and praised progress of the project as “solid and effective”.
He expressed satisfaction that “significant phased achievements” had been made in Xiongan while the development of the Beijing new administrative centre had been “stepped up”, with the rail network connecting Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei quickly taking shape.
Xi says China’s growth plans must focus on manufacturing and technology
Xie Maosong, a senior fellow at the Taihe Institute and a senior researcher at the National Institute of Strategic Studies at Tsinghua University, said the strong political will from Xi and other top leaders was necessary to break through regional administrative difficulties that had led to gaps in infrastructure and public services in the past.
“Xi has a grand vision for Beijing. The capital city of China will be the world’s political centre, hosting major diplomatic and cultural events. His repeated visits to Xiongan and Beijing’s new administrative centre with so many top government leaders is a clear signal that he is very determined to push forward,” he said.
Xie said that, with Xi’s personal attention, the new Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei party chiefs – Yin Li, Chen Miner and Ni Yuefeng – could better coordinate to overcome regional obstacles dividing their jurisdictions.ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51ku6bD0miaoaGelnyivtOimqWdX2h%2Fc32Qb21osJlit6q6z6KloGWXnsOmv4ycn6Kmkah6rrHGmmScmaCewaK4jKOgp59dn7avecmiZKmkkaPAbrrUnZ6eZZietKl5z6iunqqVmXq3tdKiqw%3D%3D