A new report from a leading think tank points to the predominant role of several major urban centres in the Chinese economy.
The “China Urban Cluster Integration Report” (中国城市群一体化报告) released by the China Development Research Foundation (中国发展研究基金会) looked at a total of 12 large-scale urban clusters covering 157 individual cities and 19.57% of China’s total land area.
These 12 urban clusters include the Yangtze River Delta, the Jing-Jin-Ji area (encompassing Beijing, Tianjin and parts of Hebei province), Shandong peninsula, the central Chinese plain focused on Henan province, the western coast of the Taiwan Strait, Harbin and Changchun in north-eastern China, Chengdu and Chongqing, central and southern Liaoning, Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan in Hunan province; Wuhan and Guanzhong centred upon the Weihe Plain.
According to the report during the period from 2006 to 2015 the share of national GDP of these 12 urban clusters increased from 70.56% to 82.03%, for an average annual growth rate of over 1 percentage point.
The share of national GDP of all of the 12 urban clusters increased, reflecting the steadily rising urbanisation of the Chinese economy.
The report further indicates that the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and the Jing-Jin-Ji area account for over 40% of China’s national economic output.
The 12 urban clusters saw their share of China’s total population rise from 61.12% to 63.07% during the period from 2006 to 2015, for an increase of 1.95 percentage points.
The Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and the Jing-Jin-Ji area saw their share of China’s total population increase more rapidly, with a rise of 2.54 percentage points.
