The governor is appointed as the convener; this new mechanism has been established.

According to “Jiangxi Daily,” on May 9th, the first plenary meeting of the Jiangxi Province Urban High-Quality Development Coordination Mechanism was held, with Jiangxi Governor Ye Jianchun presiding over the meeting and delivering a speech as the “Convener of the Provincial Urban High-Quality Development Coordination Mechanism.”

The meeting reviewed and approved in principle the “Work Rules for the Jiangxi Province Urban High-Quality Development Coordination Mechanism.”

The above news indicates that Jiangxi has established the “Provincial Urban High-Quality Development Coordination Mechanism.”

Cities are the centers of economic, political, cultural, and social activities in our country and play a vital role in the overall work of the Party and the state.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party, China has achieved historic progress in urban development. The urbanization rate of the permanent resident population increased from 53.1% in 2012 to 67% in 2024; from 2013 to 2024, China has achieved over 150 million new urban jobs; in 2024, 27 cities had a GDP exceeding 1 trillion yuan.

At the same time, China’s urban development also faces new situations and problems, such as aging and declining birthrates in cities, significant regional population increases and decreases, rapid changes in population structure; “land finance” becoming unsustainable; aging housing and infrastructure in some cities, increasing safety and stability risks, and greater governance challenges.

In July 2025, the Central Urban Work Conference was held, the first such meeting in ten years since the Party Central Committee last convened a city work conference.

The meeting mentioned that China’s urbanization is shifting from a phase of rapid growth to a phase of steady development, and urban development is transitioning from large-scale incremental expansion to focusing on quality and efficiency of existing stock.

New changes require new ideas.

Regarding the overall requirements for urban work now and in the future, the meeting stated, “With the goal of building innovative, livable, beautiful, resilient, civilized, and smart modern people’s cities” and “Focusing on promoting high-quality urban development.”

In August 2025, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the “Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Urban Development,” clearly stating that by 2030, significant progress will be made in the construction of modern people’s cities; by 2035, the basic construction of modern people’s cities will be completed.

In terms of improving the urban governance system, the “Opinions” mentioned establishing and improving a city management coordination mechanism led by the main responsible persons of urban party committees or governments.

Following the central deployment, local levels actively responded.

Among them, Jiangxi clarified that by 2030, significant progress will be made in building modern people’s cities with Jiangxi characteristics, with faster transformation of urban momentum, higher quality of living, more eco-friendly environments, stronger safety, more cultural charm, and more effective governance; by 2035, cities will be basically built in sync with the national standards for modern people’s cities.

Jiangxi also outlined six major urban construction tasks:

• Enhancing urban development momentum;

• Improving urban living quality;

• Promoting green urban transformation;

• Strengthening urban safety foundations;

• Adding cultural charm to cities;

• Improving urban governance levels.

At a press conference in February this year, Huang Jun, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of Jiangxi Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, mentioned that efforts are being made to establish and improve the urban high-quality development coordination mechanism, forming a work pattern of “provincial responsibility, departmental coordination, and city-county implementation.”

Now, Jiangxi has held its first meeting of the provincial urban high-quality development coordination mechanism.

At this meeting, Ye Jianchun put forward several requirements, including fully supporting Nanchang Metropolitan Area to become better and stronger, coordinating guidance for the characteristic development of various cities, and improving the comprehensive carrying capacity of county towns; guiding localities to identify their comparative advantages, and strengthening and expanding their leading industries; fully promoting the construction of good housing and communities, and creating more influential cultural IPs.

Besides Jiangxi, many other regions have also proposed establishing this mechanism.

The “Action Plan for Promoting High-Quality Urban Development in Jiangsu” mentions that localities should “establish and improve a city management coordination mechanism led by the main responsible persons of urban party committees or governments, regularly study major issues in urban construction and management, and build an urban development evaluation system.”

Hunan’s “Implementation Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Urban Development” also mentions establishing and improving a city management coordination mechanism led by the main responsible persons of urban party committees or governments.

Reporter: Meng Yaxu