The air pollution and traffic congestion that make life miserable in China’s biggest cities can only be tackled by building 10 new “megacities”, one of China’s top economic planners has claimed.
Yang Weimin, deputy chair of the influential Central Leading Group on Finance and Economic Affairs, told a conference in Chongqing that the concentration of people in cities like the capital, Beijing, was putting too much pressure on public services.
Considered a spokesperson for Politburo opinion, Yang said he supported the government’s urbanisation plan for 2014-20, which calls for megacities to be established in the northeast, central and western parts of the country.
“China’s urban population, which has increased by 700 million since 1980, is going to grow by a further 240 million between now and 2040.”
But he went a step further by putting the number of cities needed at 10, and saying they should be built within five years.
“If company headquarters, top hospitals and the best universities were relocated, the diseases in Beijing would be cured and neighbouring areas would have more opportunities,” he said, according to the South China Morning Post.
A megacity is defined as one with a population greater than 10 million.
