Remedy for Beijing's ills

In a move to implement the national strategy of promoting the integration with neighboring Tianjin municipality and Hebei province, the Beijing government announced on Saturday that it will accelerate the construction of Tongzhou district as its "subsidiary administrative center" and relocate non-capital functions out of the densely populated city center.

At the two-day plenary session of its Party committee, Beijing's authorities vowed to address the city's chronic "urban woes", such as traffic congestion and air pollution by curbing its rapid population growth and moving some facilities to nearby regions in a bid to build Beijing into a livable capital.

Beijing has become a vibrant modern metropolis; however, traffic congestion and air pollution have worsened as its population has grown. At the same time, the "siphon effects" Beijing's booming development has produced have had an unfavorable influence on the development of the surrounding regions. The concentration of non-capital functions, such as the development of its general manufacturing, its status as a regional logistical hub, as well as its educational and medical resources, has contributed considerably to Beijing's development, but they have also made the city's development incompatible with its status as the national political and cultural capital.