Xiongan a product of necessity, not whim

Perhaps because China is a large country, or its imbalanced economic development could give rise to unexpected contradictions, the country's leadership has decided to build a cluster of modern cities in northern China. One such cluster is Xiongan New Area, which will cover 100 square kilometers initially, and expand to 200 sq km in the mid term and 2,000 sq km in the long term.

The question such a major policy decision invites is: Why a development program that entails mammoth input of resources from across the country and will take many years to accomplish has been proposed now and why has an area in North China's Hebei province been chosen as the location? Some media outlets, with little knowledge of the issue, have assumed the decision was made on a whim.

The idea of Xiongan is in keeping with the shared belief of the Communist Party of China's leaders in "concentrating resources and achieving big undertakings". But the most important reason for Xiongan is the grand trend of China's socio-economic development.