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Which Chinese city will be the biggest loser in 2020? It’s not Wuhan
- Tianjin, one of China’s four municipalities, is grabbing attention as its once-booming economy slowly fades
- Its relative decline shows the limits of state-led growth and is a cautionary tale for debt-fuelled development
Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Tianjin, one of China’s four municipalities, is expected to drop out of the country’s top 10 cities in terms of economic size this year for the first time since records began.
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The municipality’s economic output in the first three quarters of 2020 was 1 trillion yuan (US$151.8 billion), only a third of the size of Shanghai and Beijing, the country’s two largest cities, and below regional economic hubs such as Hangzhou and Nanjing.
Chongqing, China’s third largest municipality, reported economic output of 1.78 trillion yuan in the same period, according to data released by local authorities.
Though the accuracy of municipal economic data in China is always viewed sceptically, the rankings still play a major role in guiding domestic money flows, from property developers to bond investors.
Despite efforts to switch its growth drivers in recent years, it is far from enough to offset the unprecedented [coronavirus] shocks
Beijing no longer publicly supports ranking cities by gross domestic product (GDP), but the poor performance of Tianjin is grabbing attention in China, as the metropolis of 15.6 million loses relevance on the nation’s economic map.
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