Talent management crucial for cities' progress

In about four decades, from 1978 to 2017, China's urbanization rate increased from 18 percent to 58.52 percent, which is very high compared with other countries' rates. China's urbanization rate crossed 50 percent for the first time in 2011.

Which means China's urbanization rate should slow down now. In reality, however, despite the expansion of many cities in China, the population of some cities is shrinking, which many experts regard as a city losing its vitality.

Yet the "shrinking cities" have not grabbed public attention in China, because some cities adjust their administrative division by incorporating neighboring counties into the urban areas, which causes a decline in population density but not a reduction in the urban population. In fact, even cities with net population outflow are expanding their urban areas with huge infrastructure construction projects, which hide the increasing "population crisis".