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Opinion

Urban renewal: prioritizing pragmatism and efficiency

Cities are key to modernization and people’s well-being. Recently China’s State Council released the 15th Five-Year Urban Renewal Plan, setting out targets and tasks for 2026–2030. With targets covering 115,000 old urban residential communities, 500,000 dilapidated housing units, 1,500 old neighborhoods and factory districts, 4,000 urban villages, and 365,000 kilometers of underground pipelines, a series of concrete renewal tasks have mapped out a new vision for urban renewal over the next five years.

Urban "health checks" are essential to pinpoint renewal priorities. Like living organisms, cities develop problems over time. Blind renovations can miss the real issues. Local authorities should follow the rule of "check before renewal, no check no renewal", conduct thorough diagnostics and then take targeted actions. This should form a renewal mechanism that includes problem identification, implementation, review and evaluation, and long-term consolidation.

Addressing people's urgent concerns remains central to urban renewal. Efforts should focus on renovating old residential communities, urban villages, and dilapidated housing, ensuring that practical matters such as environmental improvements, elevator installation, and parking space expansion are addressed one by one. At the same time, priority should be given to major safety issues in urban operations, with proper construction and maintenance of the underground pipeline network, the city's "lifeline", and coordinated upgrading of pipelines to address shortcomings in drainage, gas supply, and flood control.

Cultivating new growth drivers is a key focus, and revitalizing existing resources is an effective way to advance this work. Some cities have underutilized resources such as land, factories, and office buildings. By optimizing spatial planning and adjusting land use functions, these dormant assets can be awakened, providing space for new industries and new business models. Local governments should seize the opportunity of renewal to upgrade consumption infrastructure, release space through professional and market-oriented operations, foster diverse business forms, and turn old urban areas and historic buildings into new engines of economic growth.

Policy

1. Eleven government departments led by the Ministry of Transport have issued a plan to scale up new energy heavy-duty trucks, aiming for a 40 percent penetration rate and over 1.6 million units on the road by 2030.

2. Multiple government departments including the Cyberspace Administration of China and the People's Bank of China have issued guidelines on data classification and grading for financial information services, aiming to regulate data processing, boost security, and enable lawful and effective data use.

Data

1. According to the China Construction Machinery Association, in the first five months of this year, the domestic and international sales of major products in China's construction machinery industry both achieved rapid year-on-year growth. Among them, excavators, the core products of the construction machinery industry, sold a total of 126,875 units, an increase of 24.7 percent year-on-year.

2. According to the General Administration of Customs, in the first five months of this year, the imports and exports of the nine mainland cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area grew rapidly, accounting for 20.7 percent of the country's overall foreign trade.

3. According to the Ministry of Commerce, in the first five months of this year, the mechanical and electrical products account for more than 63 percent of China's exports, with significantly higher value added. Exports of these products grew 18.4 percent. The imports and exports of the mechanical and electrical products with the Belt and Road partner countries increased by 13.6 percent, accounting for over 51 percent of the total.

4. Newly installed renewable power generation capacity in China reached another record high last year, accounting for more than 60 percent of global additions, according to the China Renewable Energy Development Report. The report projected that China would add around 300 gigawatts of new wind and solar power capacity in 2026, with renewables continuing to drive the country's green and low-carbon energy transition.

5. Data released by the People's Bank of China on June 12 showed that the M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased by 8.6 percent year-on-year to RMB 353.67 trillion by the end of last month; the outstanding social financing stock was RMB 458.81 trillion, up 7.7 percent year-on-year, with both indicators growing faster than nominal GDP growth.

6. The 2025 Statistical Annual Report released by China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation on June 12 showed that the number of investors at the end of 2025 was 250.6729 million, an increase of 5.86 percent over the previous year.

7. According to the China Railway Kunming Bureau, as of June 13, the China-Laos Railway's freight volume exceeded the 10 million tons mark, with an average daily transport volume of over 67,000 tons and cross-border cargo transport exceeding 2.5 million tons.

8. In the first five months of this year, China's national railway system cumulatively dispatched 1.67 billion tons of goods, with single-day loading volumes hitting a record high.

9. In the first five months of this year, the total import and export value of goods trade in China's comprehensive bonded zones was RMB 3.5 trillion, up 27.1 percent year-on-year, accounting for 16.9 percent of the country's total import and export value.

10. China's industrial enterprises saw their sales revenue grow by 6.8 percent year-on-year in the January-May period, achieving relatively rapid growth, according to tax invoice data released by the State Taxation Administration on June 16.

(Source: Economic Daily)