On the morning of March 6, the Beijing delegation to the Fourth Session of the 14th National People’s Congress held an open group meeting, and received a group interview by 92 journalists from 51 domestic and foreign media outlets. Eight deputies, including Yin Yong, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and Mayor of Beijing; Xia Linmao, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and Executive Vice Mayor of Beijing; Wang Shaofeng, Secretary of the CPC Fengtai District Committee; and Lei Jun, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Xiaomi Corporation, answered questions from the media. Key topics included Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development, sci-tech innovation, urban renewal, and the Beautiful Beijing initiative. By sharing detailed data, concrete measures, and real-world cases, the deputies highlighted the solid progress Beijing has made in advancing high-quality development.
Yin Yong:
Striving for Solid Progress in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development
The first question was from Xinhua News Agency: How will Beijing implement the Spatial Coordination Plan for the Modern Capital Metropolitan Area (2023-2035)?
This issue was a major focus for journalists present and also a question Beijing must answer. Yin Yong noted that the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is a major national strategy. In recent years, the three localities have pulled together towards the same goal with one mind, steadily enhancing the overall strength of the region. He illustrated the progress with a set of detailed figures. In economic growth, last year, the region’s annual GDP grew by 5.4%, 0.4 percentage points higher than the national average, with its share of the national economy continuing to rise steadily. In collaborative innovation, the contractual value of technology transfers from Beijing to Tianjin and Hebei reached nearly RMB 100 billion, representing a growth of over 18%. In transport connectivity, a number of key projects, including the Beijing-Tangshan Intercity Railway and the Chengde-Pinggu Expressway, opened to traffic. In public services, more than 300 high-quality primary and secondary schools and kindergartens from Beijing and Tianjin have partnered with counterparts in Hebei to run schools jointly. In addition, 150 medical consortia have been established. More than 300 public service items can now be processed via self-service channels across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, overcoming administrative barriers to better serve residents of the three localities.
Yin noted that the Plan is the nation’s first metropolitan area plan approved by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, marking a major initiative to implement the strategy of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development from a new starting point. He emphasized that Beijing will earnestly implement the important instructions delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping during his inspection of the city and regard the Plan as a guiding framework to achieve solid progress in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development.
Yin said that the city will uphold its strategic positioning as the capital, balancing the relationships between “capital” and “city”, the capital and the capital metropolitan area, and the capital metropolitan area and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban cluster. He emphasized the importance of relocating functions not essential to Beijing’s role as the capital, bolstering Beijing’s position as the Four Centers, improving its ability to provide the Four Services, and fully leveraging Beijing’s central role in boosting development of the entire Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Efforts should also accelerate the development of a world-class, harmonious, and livable city that can better support Beijing’s role as the capital. He highlighted efforts to promote an integrated regional commuter network by accelerating key projects such as rail transit and expressways, and building more fast regional connections. Efforts will also focus on promoting innovation in complementary urban functions across the area, providing stronger support for the development of the Xiong’an New Area and enhancing high-quality collaboration with Tianjin. Over the coming years, two corridors to foster new quality productive forces will be developed between Beijing and Xiong’an New Area and between Beijing and Tianjin. Coordinated industrial development across the region will be enhanced to seize the opportunity provided by the expansion of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei international technological innovation center. The pace and scale of commercializing research outcomes within the region will be increased, accelerating the formation of a multi-level, coordinated, and open development pattern serving northern China, the entire country, and the wider world.
Yin Yong:
Building Beijing into a Big Garden
A journalist from Beijing Radio & Television Station (BRTV) asked about what specific considerations and measures Beijing has proposed to advance the Beautiful Beijing initiative. Yin Yong said that, in recent years, the city has thoroughly implemented Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization by coordinating efforts to cut carbon emissions, reduce pollution, expand green development, and promote growth, yielding positive results in environmental improvement. Last year, the city’s annual average concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was 27 μg/m3, the lowest level on record. Aquatic environments have continued to improve. In the national surface water quality assessment, the proportion of Beijing’s monitoring sections meeting or exceeding Grade III standards was maintained at above 90%. A number of waterfront spaces, including the Liangma River waterfront, emerged as scenic highlights of the city.
Regarding future plans, Yin Yong said that Beijing will uphold the notion that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, improve the city’s environment across the board, and accelerate the building of a Beautiful Beijing. Fresh headway will be made in keeping skies blue, waters clear, and lands clean, improving the effectiveness of environmental governance. Pollution control measures will be continuously refined to consolidate the gains in air quality improvement. Efforts will also focus on improving rural sewage collection and treatment, connecting more sections of the waterfront promenade system, creating more exemplary cases under China’s Beautiful Rivers and Lakes initiative, and developing more leisure hubs featuring green spaces and clear waters. In addition, Beijing will step up the control and treatment of new pollutants, improve the system for municipal solid waste sorting, and make fresh progress in building a waste-free city.
Yin said that Beijing will advance citywide integrated greening, including expanding greenery, planting diverse flora for vibrant hues, and promoting vertical and rooftop gardening, thereby building Beijing into a garden city. At the macro level, the city will present a broad and expressive landscape vision. Drawing on the distinctive character of Beijing’s four seasons, it will shape an urban scenery featuring “vibrant spring, lush summer, colorful autumn, and silvery-ink winter”. At the meso level, emphasis will be placed on intricate spatial design. Based on its natural mountains and rivers and overall urban structure, the city will establish a spatial framework characterized by “one ecological shield, five rivers, two city axes, three green rings, nine wedge-shaped green spaces, and fifteen garden city demonstration areas”. At the micro level, meticulous attention will be given to fine-grained urban design. Efforts will be made to coordinate urban elements, such as buildings, roads, waterways, and street furniture, together with ecological features such as mountains, rivers, forests, farmland, lakes, and grasslands, so as to create more tangible and accessible high-quality spaces. More garden-style communities, villages, schools, and industrial parks will be developed close to where residents live and work. Beijing will also take proactive and measured steps toward carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and step up efforts to make itself a global pacesetter in the green economy. With a focus on controlling both total carbon emissions and emission intensity, the city will build a green energy system and promote green production and lifestyles, striving to turn advanced green energy and low-carbon, environment-friendly industries into new trillion-yuan industrial clusters.
Xia Linmao:
Accelerating the Development of a Modern Industrial System with Beijing Characteristics
A journalist from People’s Daily asked what specific considerations and measures Beijing has for sustaining high-quality economic development. In response, Xia Linmao said that, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the city’s Gross Regional Product (GRP) has successively crossed the four- and five-trillion-yuan thresholds. The city’s per capita GRP, labor productivity measured by output per worker, and other indicators, remained the best in China. As Beijing shifts toward a growth model that reduces key inputs, we have charted a new path for the transformation and development of a super-large city.
Xia noted that Beijing will study and implement the CPC Central Committee’s decisions and plans, and the important instructions delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping during his inspection of the city. The city will incorporate the Five Key Initiatives more deeply into the new development pattern, and enhance both quality and performance of growth. Through a balanced approach—ensuring and increasing reasonable inputs while withdrawing and scaling back others—Beijing aims to improve the quality of growth and appropriately increase output.
He elaborated on three key areas. First, the city will accelerate the development of a modern industrial system with Beijing characteristics. This includes continuing the integrated development of education, science and technology, and human resources, and improving mechanisms that integrate sci-tech innovation and industrial innovation. The city will upgrade key industries, such as pharmaceuticals and health, while speeding up the growth of strategic emerging industries, including robotics and intelligent manufacturing, intelligent connected vehicles, and commercial aerospace. At the same time, new growth drivers will be fostered for future industries, such as quantum technology and biomanufacturing. In addition, the supporting role of the modern service sector will be further strengthened, along with efforts to encourage producer services such as technology and business services to move toward the higher end of the value chain.
Second, Beijing will work to improve people’s lives while increasing consumer spending, and coordinate investments in physical assets and human capital, in a continued effort to reinforce domestic demand as the principal engine of economic growth. On the one hand, the city will expand the supply of high-quality and diversified consumption offerings and promote integration across the cultural, commercial, tourism, sports, and exhibition sectors. On the other hand, it will expand effective investment, continue to optimize the investment structure, and step up investment in key industries, urban renewal, and new infrastructure. More investment will be allocated to improving people’s lives and upgrading consumption.
Third, Beijing will advance in-depth reform and high-standard opening up, while stimulating the confidence and vitality of all market entities. Beijing will be equipped with a refined mechanism to contribute to the unified national market and the comprehensive reform for the market-based allocation of production factors will be advanced. The city will deliver government services with greater warmth and responsiveness, launch a new round of business environment reforms, refine the service package and steward service mechanisms, and expand effective channels for the private sector to participate in the capital’s high-quality development. At the same time, Beijing will continue to develop the Two Zones and build itself into a globally important destination for investment.
Wu Chen:
Leveraging Flagship Urban Renewal Projects to Boost Development Vitality
Wu Chen, Chief Architect and Chief Planner of Beijing Institute of Architectural Design Co., Ltd. (BIAD), Chair Professor and Dean of the School of Sciences for the Habitat at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), and Chief Architect of Shougang Group, shared his insights in response to a question from Russia’s RT TV about how to promote high-quality development through urban renewal. He noted that leveraging flagship urban renewal projects to scale up Beijing’s capacity will accelerate the establishment of a new open, dynamic, and sustainable pattern of high-quality development in the capital.
Wu said that flagship projects, as strategic hubs with significant impact and strong catalytic effects, require stronger top-level coordination. Guided by the capital’s overall development framework, such projects should be organized around key axes and critical nodes to form a tiered and interconnected project system. At the planning stage, it is important to identify the target industries and attract diverse sources of capital through demonstration effects, thereby enabling flagship projects to serve as key drivers for stimulating domestic demand and expanding investment.
He further elaborated on three categories of flagship projects: revitalization of the old town, development of innovation hubs, and empowerment of transportation hubs. Regarding the holistic conservation and revitalization of the old town, he noted that systematic protection should serve as the foundation, with a focus on functional renewal and the upgrading of business formats. These measures could help advance sustained cultural development, optimize public spaces, and enhance cultural consumption in a coordinated manner.
In the development of youth innovation hubs, Wu cited the “Together for a Shared Future” urban revitalization landmark project, completed in 2025, as an example. He explained that, focusing on fields such as science fiction and virtual reality, the project has built an innovation ecosystem covering the whole process from R&D to consumption, while also fostering an enabling environment for youth development, supported by complementary facilities in art, sports, and dynamic consumption. He believes that by building such flagship platforms, more resources can be directed toward people, strengthening young people’s sense of identity and belonging in the city, and facilitating the city’s transition from resource-intensive growth to innovation-driven development.
He concluded by emphasizing the need to strengthen the economic function of transportation hubs as a new growth driver, promoting the transformation of transportation hubs from single-function nodes into vibrant urban centers, and fostering a development model of the capital metropolitan region led by rail transit. At the same time, greater efforts should be made to enhance the integration of transport infrastructure with commercial facilities and public services. “By optimizing the spatial layout in hub areas and closely coordinating traffic, customer, and business activities, transit passengers can easily become staying visitors with spending potential,” Wu said.
Wang Shaofeng:
Filling the City with More Birdsong and Fragrance of Flowers and Fruits
When asked by a journalist from Beijing Daily about Fengtai District’s plans to support Beijing’s development into a garden city, Wang Shaofeng, Secretary of the CPC Fengtai District Committee, said that Fengtai has a horticultural history of more than 800 years. It is a major flower distribution center in northern China and an ecological barrier for the southern and southwestern parts of the capital’s central area. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the district will strive to become a distinctive area within the garden city, featuring lush greenery, blooming flowers, and harmonious integration of gardens and scenic landscapes, filling the city with more birdsong and the fragrance of flowers and fruits.
“High-quality ecological spaces are essential to the capital’s urban development. With a comprehensive network of district-level forest belts and main urban green corridors, the entire district will appear to grow within a forest,” Wang said. He further presented a vision of a garden-style urban living. Building on the restoration of historic landscapes such as the “Autumn Wind in the Nanyuan Garden” and the “Moon over the Lugou Bridge at Dawn”, the district is introducing projects including “Yanjing Viewing Platform”, “Sky Mirror of Lize, “Locust Tree Shade of Changxindian”, and “City Gallery”, creating an environment where scenery unfolds at every turn.
“Efforts to build Beijing into a garden city should prioritize public benefit, ensuring that all residents share the outcomes,” Wang emphasized. Based on the “one school, one park” partnerships linking 120 primary and secondary schools with local parks, the district will further promote programs such as the “Colorful Safe Routes to School” and the “Street Poetry Festival,” fostering engaging and innovative learning experiences while advancing new forms of high-quality education in emerging fields. Efforts will also focus on creating parks that are friendly to people of all ages, implementing a coordinated mechanism among designated planners, architects, and horticulturists, and promoting models such as “Citizen Park Director” and “Park Partners,” so as to better meet the diverse needs of seniors, children, young people, and persons with disabilities. The district will encourage the integrated use of park spaces by incorporating wellness and fitness facilities, exhibitions, social interaction, reading spaces, cultural activities, and convenient public services, transforming parks into new spaces for everyday urban life. “By the end of April, Lize will host the Beijing International Flower Show, which features a 25,000-square-meter core exhibition area and a 100,000-square-meter outdoor exhibition space, offering visitors an immersive floral experience. We warmly welcome everyone to come and enjoy this international celebration of flowers”, Wang added.
Cheng Jing:
Making Frontier Technology a Tangible Protector of Public Health
In response to a question from a journalist with the Brazilian media outlet A Tarde on how frontier technologies such as biomedicine can truly enter everyday life and become a visible, tangible safeguard for public health, Cheng Jing, Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Director of the National Engineering Research Center for Beijing Biochip Technology, first outlined the progress of Beijing’s pharmaceutical and health industry. “As the first city in China to see its pharmaceutical and health industry exceed one trillion yuan in industrial output, Beijing has in recent years continuously strengthened coordinated development between its southern and northern areas, and deepened the integration of technological innovation with the medical insurance, medical treatment, and medicine supply. Multiple policies targeting key sectors of the pharmaceutical and health industry have been introduced, providing strong impetus for rapid industrial growth,” Cheng said.
On making frontier technologies truly part of everyday life, Cheng emphasized that the key lies in the integration of multiple technologies while ensuring affordability and accessibility, and promoting the deep integration of next-generation information technologies with traditional Chinese medicine, Western medicine, and life sciences. He highlighted the need to advance underlying technologies such as biochips and biosensors, embedding them into everyday life to deliver tangible health benefits through continuous and unobtrusive health data collection and analysis.
He noted that in the future, efforts can begin with specific everyday settings—such as homes, care facilities, mobility, and communities—to advance home-based health checks and health management toward more routine, personalized, and precise application, allowing them to better safeguard public health. In terms of health checks, complex laboratory procedures can be integrated into portable biochips, enabling professional diagnostics to move beyond laboratories and into households. For health management, guided by precision medicine, accurate identification of individual constitutions and sub-health conditions will support the development of customized medicinal-food products and well-designed health improvement plans. This will help shift health management away from a one-size-fits-all model toward individualized approaches, ultimately establishing proactive, lifelong, and personalized solutions.
Lei Jun:
Private Enterprises Should Take the Lead and Seize the Window of Industrial Opportunities
“Accelerating the development of new quality productive forces through sci-tech innovation is the mission of our times, and private enterprises should have the courage to take the lead,” said Lei Jun, a deputy to the National People’s Congress and Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Xiaomi Corporation, in response to a question from a journalist with the Beijing Station of China Media Group. Lei noted that the greatest strengths of private enterprises lie in their proximity to the market and users, as well as their agility, enabling them to quickly apply new technologies to real-world scenarios and develop replicable products and solutions. “With the advancement of emerging technologies and new arenas such as artificial intelligence, chips, and robotics, a new window of industrial transformation is opening,” Lei said. In his view, private enterprises should seize this opportunity, uphold a long-term perspective, remain technology-driven, and continue investing in hardcore technological innovation, while accelerating the application and commercialization of innovative outcomes.
Speaking about Xiaomi’s future approach for sci-tech innovation, Lei said that the company will continue pursuing breakthroughs in core technologies, including chips, operating systems, and artificial intelligence, while promoting the deep integration of high-end manufacturing with emerging industries such as new energy vehicles and robotics. Xiaomi will proactively serve as the main actor in innovation and leverage its role as a “chain master” enterprise to drive the overall innovation capacity of the industrial chain. At the same time, it will translate sci-tech innovation outcomes into real productivity gains with a clear orientation towards market demand.
“Xiaomi is a homegrown Beijing enterprise, and our growth has been inseparable from this enabling environment for entrepreneurship,” Lei noted with particular appreciation. He emphasized that Beijing’s world-class business environment, abundant innovation resources, and open and inclusive ecosystem have provided strong support for Xiaomi’s rapid development. The expansion of the international tech innovation center to encompass the entire Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region presents both an important opportunity and a significant responsibility for the company. “Going forward, we will deepen our integration into the regional innovation ecosystem through sustained investment in hardcore technologies, coordinated development across the entire industrial chain, and the guiding role of leading enterprises, contributing to the cultivation of new quality productive forces.”
