The top provincial capital in North China is poised to build itself into a strong provincial capital with high competitiveness.

In previous articles, I have repeatedly emphasized a view: Inland provinces must unswervingly implement the provincial capital strengthening strategy.

Facts have proved this, and almost all inland regions are rolling out this strategy.

Last year, Chengdu, which had fully implemented the provincial capital strengthening strategy, made it clear that it would continue to push forward this strategy. Gansu also put forward the priority development strategy for its provincial capital. This year, Changsha, Nanchang and Taiyuan successively stated their stance on this strategy, followed by Shijiazhuang.

On September 5, Shijiazhuang stated at an important meeting: A thriving provincial capital makes the whole province thrive, and a strong provincial capital makes the whole province strong. We will vigorously implement the provincial capital strengthening strategy, strive to raise the city's GDP to over one trillion yuan as soon as possible, and enhance the primacy of the provincial capital.

After that, Shijiazhuang Daily published an article titled *It Is the Right Time for Hebei to Strengthen Its Provincial Capital*, which put forward three reasons why Hebei needs to grow Shijiazhuang:

First, although Hebei is an eastern province, its gross domestic product and per capita GDP are at a relatively low level, so it is not among the large economic provinces. Xiong'an New Area undertakes the millennium-long strategic plan, Tangshan is the only "trillion-yuan GDP city" in the whole province, and every city has its own industrial foundation... Hebei has long been faced with the pattern of "having highlands but no prominent peaks", which restricts the province's breakthrough and rise.

Second, the competition between regions is essentially the competition of core cities. Across the country, provinces including Anhui, Henan, Hunan, Hubei and Sichuan have all launched the provincial capital strengthening strategy. Thanks to the strategy, Chengdu contributes more than 30% of Sichuan's total economic output; Anhui takes Hefei as the pivot to secure a position in the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta; Hunan takes Changsha as the leader to build the Changzhutan metropolitan area, keeping its total economic output steadily among the top 10 across the country.

Third, Hebei is at a critical stage of climbing over obstacles and promoting transformation and upgrading. It should align with the overall development situation, organically integrate its own development with the rise of the Bohai Rim region and the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and form a new economic growth pole in the coordinated regional development. Against this background, it is urgent to strengthen the provincial capital, so as to drive the development of the whole region and achieve the breakthrough of the whole province. Therefore, Hebei's re-proposal of the provincial capital strengthening strategy comes at a very opportune moment.

Two Practical Reasons Behind Shijiazhuang's Provincial Capital Strengthening Initiative

In fact, apart from the three broad macro reasons mentioned by Shijiazhuang Daily, there are two more practical reasons behind Hebei's need to strengthen Shijiazhuang.

First, Shijiazhuang has the weakest say among all provincial capitals and autonomous region capitals. In the first half of this year, I conducted a quantitative analysis on the say of 27 provincial capitals and autonomous region capitals in Chinese mainland based on four indicators: administrative level of the provincial capital, economic primacy of the provincial capital, the gap between the top city and the second largest city in the province, and permanent resident population primacy of the provincial capital. The conclusion is: The provincial capitals with the strongest say are undoubtedly Changchun, Chengdu and Wuhan.

These three cities are the only sub-provincial cities in their respective provinces, and both their economic primacy and population primacy rank among the top across the country. In particular, Changchun ranks first nationwide in economic primacy and third nationwide in population primacy, with a large gap over the second largest city in its province.

Jinan, Nanjing, Hohhot, Shijiazhuang and Guangzhou have the weakest say. These provincial capitals generally have very poor performance in terms of the four indicators.

In terms of administrative level, Hohhot and Shijiazhuang, like other sibling cities in their respective provinces, are ordinary prefecture-level cities. Their economic primacy and population primacy rank at the bottom, and their economic output is even lower than the second largest city in their respective provinces.

Although Jinan and Guangzhou are sub-provincial cities, they are not the only sub-provincial cities in their provinces. Their economic primacy and population primacy also rank at the bottom, and there is a large economic gap between them and the second largest city in their respective provinces. Nanjing has advantages in administrative level, but it also performs very poorly in the other three indicators.

Second, Shijiazhuang missed its development target. In 2022, Shijiazhuang set an ambitious target for itself: to raise its GDP to over 1 trillion yuan by 2025, and rank among the top 30 cities in China in terms of comprehensive strength.

However, this target was not achieved due to realistic constraints. In 2025, Shijiazhuang's GDP reached 865.17 billion yuan, ranking 34th across the country, still more than 130 billion yuan short of the 1 trillion yuan target. Therefore, in the face of the realistic dilemma of weak say and missed GDP target, Hebei needs to strengthen its provincial capital.

In fact, after putting forward the 1 trillion yuan GDP target in 2022, Hebei also clearly launched the provincial capital strengthening strategy.

In September 2023, *Action Plan for Shijiazhuang to Implement the Provincial Capital Strengthening Strategy (2023-2027)* (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan") clarified the "timetable" and "roadmap" for the city to strive to implement the provincial capital strengthening strategy in the next five years.

In the document, Shijiazhuang put forward more ambitious targets: by 2027, its gross domestic product will increase significantly, its provincial primacy will rise, its permanent resident population will grow, its comprehensive strength will rank among the top across the country, and its leading role in the southern central Hebei region, radiation capacity across the province and competitiveness nationwide will continue to be enhanced. In terms of comprehensive economic strength, by 2027, its gross domestic product will reach more than 1.2 trillion yuan, its primacy in the province will strive to reach 20%, and its permanent resident population will reach more than 11.5 million.

Judging from the current foundation of Shijiazhuang, obviously none of these targets can be achieved by 2027, which means that Shijiazhuang faces great difficulties in implementing the provincial capital strengthening strategy.

The difficulties are related to the administrative division of Hebei Province.

Hebei is divided into two parts by the two municipalities directly under the Central Government of Beijing and Tianjin. Tangshan, Zhangjiakou and Chengde in the north are all affected by the siphon effect of Beijing and Tianjin, so Shijiazhuang has very limited say. Baoding, Langfang and Cangzhou in the central part are also under the strong influence of Beijing and Tianjin. Shijiazhuang only has relatively strong influence in Handan, Hengshui and Xingtai in southern Hebei. That is why Shijiazhuang has long been difficult to expand, and Hebei has long been stuck in an awkward mid-tier position.

Shijiazhuang Has No Other Choices

The objective difficulties brought by its special geographical location still exist, but Shijiazhuang still insists on promoting the provincial capital strengthening strategy, because this is the only viable path in front of it, and it has no other alternatives except strengthening itself as the provincial capital.

Of course, Shijiazhuang now has another advantage, that is, the Shijiazhuang Metropolitan Area has been approved and listed as a national-level metropolitan area.

In March 2025, the Shijiazhuang Metropolitan Area was approved as the 17th national-level metropolitan area in China.

The scope of Shijiazhuang Metropolitan Area includes: Shijiazhuang (excluding key ecological function zones and other areas), Dingzhou City, Xinji City, Taocheng District, Jizhou District, Shenzhou City and Anping County of Hengshui City, Xiangdu District, Xindu District (urban area), Renze District, Nanhe District, Baixiang County, Ningjin County, Longyao County and Shahe City of Xingtai City, covering an area of about 16,500 square kilometers, with a permanent resident population of about 16.32 million.

From the perspective of prefecture-level cities, it mainly involves three cities: Shijiazhuang, Hengshui and Xingtai, covering parts of southern Hebei, while Handan is not included.

The essence of metropolitan areas and urban agglomerations is the main development direction in the future. On the one hand, the initiative aims to expand the energy field of central cities, on the other hand, it will accelerate the rapid flow of various production factors within the metropolitan area and urban agglomeration through the rail-connected metropolitan areas and urban agglomerations, so as to improve economic benefits and boost the development of small and weak cities in the area.

Metropolitan areas and urban agglomerations are the carriers of the 2.0 era of urbanization. Over the years, the state has continuously approved national-level urban agglomerations and national-level metropolitan areas, aiming to accelerate the flow of various production factors such as people, capital and goods among cities in each area, so as to generate stronger economic benefits.

The foundation for realizing this goal is transportation. Therefore, we can find the same statement in the approved metropolitan areas of Nanjing, Fuzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an and other cities, that is, "to build a rail-connected metropolitan area".

Therefore, once approved as a national-level metropolitan area, it is certain that the cities in the area will get huge transportation benefits. And Shijiazhuang just needs such a legitimate reason and authority to siphon resources from surrounding cities.

From a realistic perspective, the approval of the national-level metropolitan area finally gives Shijiazhuang a well-grounded starting point to expand itself as a provincial capital and strengthen its position as a central city.

In the past, Shijiazhuang was difficult to achieve breakthroughs, largely restricted by the special geographical pattern of Hebei. Beijing and Tianjin are located to its north, and cities in the south operate independently, so Shijiazhuang's radiation capacity to surrounding cities has always been limited. The national-level metropolitan area just provides an opportunity to re-integrate resources.

The first thing Shijiazhuang needs to do next is to give full play to the advantage of transportation. Focusing on the construction of the national-level metropolitan area, it will accelerate the construction of intercity railways, urban suburban railways and expressways, and truly integrate surrounding cities including Hengshui, Xingtai, Dingzhou and Xinji into Shijiazhuang's "1-hour economic circle". When the flow of people, logistics, capital and industrial chains is fully activated, Shijiazhuang's urban function level will achieve qualitative improvement.

The second priority is industrial development. Shijiazhuang has laid a certain foundation in industries including pharmaceuticals, equipment manufacturing, electronic information and modern food processing. In the future, it needs to expand and strengthen these industries, and extend the industrial chains to surrounding areas with the support of the metropolitan area.

Especially in fields such as biomedicine, modern food processing, advanced equipment manufacturing and new-generation information technology, Shijiazhuang can fully rely on leading enterprises to carry out industrial chain investment promotion, and reorganize the previously scattered industrial resources across Hebei.

What Shijiazhuang needs is not simply to transfer the GDP of surrounding cities to its own account, but to attract more enterprises to set up their headquarters, R&D centers, sales departments and high value-added links in Shijiazhuang, and arrange manufacturing bases and supporting links in other cities in the metropolitan area.

In this way, Shijiazhuang can truly form the industrial division pattern of "R&D in the provincial capital + manufacturing in surrounding areas". This is also the most realistic path for Shijiazhuang to hit the 1 trillion yuan GDP target. After all, the gap from 865.17 billion yuan to 1 trillion yuan is not just a simple number, but an overall leap of the city's industrial function level and population scale.

Therefore, whether Shijiazhuang can successfully implement the provincial capital strengthening strategy in the next few years depends on two key points: whether it can turn the national-level metropolitan area label into the actual right of resource allocation, and whether it can turn its own industrial and transportation advantages into the continuous ability to attract population, capital and enterprises.

If these two tasks can be completed well, Shijiazhuang will have a good chance to achieve the 1 trillion yuan GDP target. More importantly, once Shijiazhuang is truly strengthened, it means that a new growth pole is taking shape in Hebei.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "City Finance & Economics" , written by Yu Fei, and published with authorization from 36Kr.