Advertisement
Chinese academics divided on idea to turn Kashgar into a municipality under Beijing’s control
- Report says city should be given status of a centrally administered municipality on par with Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing
- China’s leaders have undertaken a number of initiatives to boost Kashgar’s economic development, including setting up a special economic zone in 2010
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
A proposal to make Kashgar, a city in China’s far western Xinjiang region, into a municipality administered by Beijing has left academic opinion divided.
Advertisement
The suggestion was included in an academic paper written by researchers from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and published in the academy’s bulletin last week.
The paper, which analysed what would be the best administrative and regional governance model for China during its 14th five-year plan period (2021-25), has been widely debated in the media.
Policymakers are expected to begin their final review of the plan ahead of a Communist Party conference in October, before leaders give their stamp of approval for it to proceed to the endorsement stage at next year’s National People’s Congress.
Advertisement
The paper said that speeding up urbanisation in China’s border cities would improve national security and promote economic development.
Advertisement