Social stability credited for making Chinese cities more livable

Chinese cities have become more livable compared with other cities around the world in the past 12 months, as terror and unrest elsewhere underlined stability in China, according to a global ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

A period of relative stability is the main reason why seven of the eight mainland cities that were rated have seen scores improve in the past 12 months. While the average global stability score has fallen by 2.2 percent over the past five years, mainland cities saw scores improve by an average of 0.45 percentage points in the same period, according to the think tank.

"Improving Chinese scores is a bright spot in an otherwise worrying picture painted by the global threat of instability. Last year, events in Ukraine and the Middle East formed a sobering backdrop to global livability, but in the past 12 months this has been compounded by protests in the US, sanctions in Russia and shootings in France and Tunisia," said Jon Copestake, editor of the survey.