Exodus of population from 5 major cities benefits 2nd-tier ones: experts
Experts said the drop in permanent resident populations in five major Chinese cities in 2017 will help balance the allocation of labor resources in the country’s second-tier cities.
The permanent populations in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin municipalities, as well as in Northeast China’s Liaoning and Jilin provinces in 2017 were fewer by 22,000, 13,700 and 55,000 and 91,000 and 156,000, respectively, than the previous year, news site 21jingji.com reported.
“The relocation of non-capital functions from Beijing is the primary reason for the city’s outflow of people, while Liaoning and Jilin were affected by the heavy industry downturn,” Lu Jiehua, a sociologist at Peking University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Cities in Northeast China have suffered from an economic downturn, which caused many young people to seek employment in other regions of the country, Lu added.
More than 70,000 permanent residents in Liaoning have left the province, the report said.
Beijing plans to cap its population at 23 million by 2020 to address “big city diseases,” including traffic congestion and pollution.
Provinces like Henan, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan and Inner Mongolia are also experiencing a drop in their populations, 21jingji.com reported.
The net outflow of populations in northern China is worse than in southern China, the report noted.
The southern regions are experiencing rapid economic growth, faster than in northern China in recent years, Li Jianmin, a professor of demographics at Nankai University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
However, Li said the negative growth in the population in the cities won’t necessary slow down or affect economic development. The population distribution, on the contrary, will balance the allocation of labor resources and make development more efficient.
Second-tier cities like Hangzhou, Chengdu and Wuhan are ramping up their efforts to lure more talent by offering attractive policies. These include lowering the threshold on household registration and providing house rental subsidiaries and entrepreneurship allowances.