Economy and Nation Weekly

Beijing's Capacity Woes

Economy and Nation Weekly

February 7, 2011

Beijing will implement a series of policies to control the growth of its non-resident population in 2011, including forbidding renting basements as housing, and lifting the standard of starting service businesses in the capital. The new policies will affect many of Beijing's floating population. The policies are made based on some experts' claim that the size of Beijing's population is approaching or even exceeds the capacity of the city's resources. However, Duan Chengrong, a professor with Population Institute of Renmin University of China, and Lu Jiehua, a professor with Department of Sociology of Peking University, believe that this is a flawed policy, both saying a city's capacity can be increased by better management and bringing in additional resources from outside the city.