Government planners have spent over 835 billion yuan on Xiongan since the first heavy shovels hit the ground back in March 2017. They wanted to build a "thousand-year city" in the marshy fields located exactly 125km south of the crowded and smoggy capital in Beijing. It looked like a failure.
Critics frequently called the massive site a vanity project for the president and the most expensive ghost town in the modern world. But things are changing fast. Large state firms like China Satellite Network Group finally moved their headquarters to the city in late 2023 to lead the way.
A discernible city centre has finally appeared through the humid summer haze that often hangs over the flat northern plains of China. A giant data centre that looks like a massive human eyeball sits near the impressive new local government buildings on the main road. People are there now.
Now, officials have relocated more than 100,000 students from Beijing campuses to the new district as of the start of early 2024. And they expect another 15,000 new arrivals to join the local universities before the end of this current and busy academic year.
Rapid population growth is not the primary goal for the Communist Party planners who are managing the site on a daily basis. They want to cap the total resident count at five million people by 2035 to avoid the messy urban sprawl of old cities. This keeps things orderly.
The city uses a strict merit-based system to decide which citizens are actually allowed to live within its borders on a permanent basis. Applicants need high scores in education and specific technical skills to secure a permanent residency permit from the local state office. It is an elite club.
Workers without a permit can try for a special green card that provides limited benefits for a period of exactly five years. This card offers free transport and school access, but the rights eventually expire if the holder loses their job or leaves the city.
Pension rules in Xiongan are also being tested to solve the national crisis of an aging and shrinking population across the wider country. In February, the local government forced firms to pay into worker retirement funds for the first time in the history of China. They want results.
Housing policy here follows the strict rule that homes are for living in and not for speculative financial profit or private investment. You cannot buy a flat in Xiongan if you currently own property anywhere else in the country at the time of your application. Speculators are banned.
So, even the land leases are subject to new experiments that challenge the way Chinese cities usually make money through long-term land sales. And officials now offer five-year contracts to stop developers from hoarding vacant land while they wait for market prices to rise again.
But the local farmers feel left behind by this shiny new world of high-tech offices and manicured parks for the urban elite. Many saw their small factories closed down to meet strict new green standards without receiving any fair financial help from the state. They are angry.
Now, one resident told me he cannot afford a home for his sons because the new rules and entry costs are far too strict. He thinks Xiongan is becoming a gated enclave for the most privileged state workers and the wealthy political elite of the country. It feels exclusionary.
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