Beijing is bulging: the city's population has exceeded 17
million. This number is only 1 million away from reaching the
ceiling the city government has set for 2020.
The figure breaks down into 12.04 million holders of Beijing
"hukou", or household registration certificates, and 5.1 million
floating residents. The Ministry of Public Security reported these
figures during a workshop on the country's migrant worker
management on Monday.
Beijing municipal government announced last year that
authorities would limit the city's population to 18 million by
2020.
Overpopulation is putting considerable pressure on the city's
natural resources and environment. And experts have warned the
current population, 17 million calculated at the end of June, is
already 3 million more than Beijing's resources can feed.
Given this year's baby boom, triggered by the superstitious
belief that babies born in the Chinese year of the pig are lucky,
analysts say there is little hope for an immediate slowdown in
Beijing's population growth. This comes despite the predicted
post-Beijing Olympics lull and already soaring
housing prices that have driven some Beijingers to boom towns in
the neighboring Hebei Province and Tianjin Municipality.
Migrants, especially surplus rural laborers who have taken up
non-agricultural jobs in the city, have forcefully contributed to
the population explosion in recent years.
About 200 million migrants are working in cities across
China.
Last year, the Ministry of Public Security proposed that police
authorities in the migrants' home provinces should send "resident
police officers" to cities to help maintain public security inside
major migrant communities. Many of them are slums that are prone to
violence, robberies, drugs and gambling.
Resident policemen are currently at work in three cities:
Dongguan, a manufacturing center in Guangdong Province, Binzhou of the central Hunan Province and Guigang of the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The ministry has also demanded that all cities complete a
migrant worker information system to manage migrant data by the end
of 2009.
(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2007)