POLITICs
T
he widely-watched Beijing Urban
Master Plan (2016-2030) has taken
another step forward: after being
briefed on the progress of the plan, Chinese
President Xi Jinping delivered a key speech at
a June 27 meeting of the Standing Commit-
tee of the Political Bureau of the Communist
Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.
The compiling of the latest version started
in early 2014. After being reviewed and ap-
proved at the 14th Plenary Session of the
11th CPC Beijing Municipal Committee
in mid-May 2017, it was submitted to the
CPC Central Committee and State Council
for final approval.
Once it gets the green light, the new plan
will become an official blueprint that guides
and constrains the arrangements for the
capital city’s layout up to 2030. Based on the
information that has been made available by
Beijing local authorities, the newly-compiled
blueprint is very likely to kick-start the city’s
re-distribution of functions, and put an end
to the current unplanned development char-
acterised by an overcrowded downtown and
urban sprawl.
Before the new planning blueprint was
submitted to the CPC Beijing Municipal
Committee for approval, its draft version
went on public display at the Beijing Plan-
ning Exhibition Hall for 30 days to gather
feedback from the public. The draft version
shows the new plans for the layout of the city,
namely a central city, a subcentre, two axes,
and multiple suburban areas.
After a review by the municipal authorities
in mid-May, “one district” – the core district
that incorporates the elements involved in
Beijing’s functions as the capital city – and
“one area” – the ecological conservation area- were incorporated into the new plan.
Merger of Two Districts?
Since the merging of Beijing city’s four
downtown districts into two, namely
Dongcheng and Xicheng, in July 2010, there
have been calls to further integrate them into
a single district.
The newly proposed “one core district”
concept, brought up in the latest planning
blueprint, has led to renewed speculation
that the two downtown districts are likely to
merge to form a new administrative district,
amid the ongoing effort to shift non-capital
city functions out of the Chinese capital.
In an interview with ChinaReport, a plan-
ning expert, who was among the compilers
of the previous Beijing city planning blue-
print, said the readjustment of Beijing’s exist-
ing administrative districts is highly possible,
based on information already available to the
public.
Ren Zeping, chief economist at Founder
Securities, shares a similar view. The former
deputy director of the macro-economy de-
partment of the State Council’s Develop-
ment Research Centre believes that the two
old downtown areas’ restructuring into a
central administrative area is set to move up
the agenda, with the establishment of theXiongan New District 100km southwest
of Beijing, the ongoing construction of the
Tongzhou sub-centre on the eastern fringes
of the city and the accompanying eastward
relocation of Beijing’s municipal public sec-
tor agencies.
Ren believes setting up a central administra-
tive district is doubly significant: first, it fur-
ther strengthens the protection of the heritage
of the ancient capital; second, it helps clear
out non-essential functions, addresses the
problems of the megacity, and facilitates coor-
dinated development across the wider region.
According to an inside source interviewed
by Caixin magazine, the new blueprint draft
has reserved space for a central administrative
area. But the source also said that the deci-
sion whether to set up a central administra-
tive district will be made by the central gov-
ernment, instead of local authorities.
As a renowned urban planning expert in
Beijing, Lian Yuming, president of the Bei-
jing International Institute of Urban Devel-
opment, was also the first to put forward
the idea of creating a central administrative
district. When compiling the Xicheng Dis-
trict’s 13th Five Year Plan guidelines, Lian
increasingly believed that the administrative
district adjustment in 2010 was not suffi-
ciently thorough, as it failed to address some
ingrained issues that impede Beijing’s urban
development.
“After the adjustment, Dongcheng and
Xicheng districts will still have to balance
services and the economy. This has led toGoing as Planned
remAde City
A new urban planning blueprint awaiting final approval is set to reshape the very fabric of
the city of Beijing and its role within the country until 2030
By Cai Rupeng