Wu Guangqiang

    ACCORDING to the 2011 Blue Book of Urban Competitiveness of China, compiled by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Hong Kong remains China’s most competitive city, followed by Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen.

    Some Shenzhen citizens are surprised at the results since Shenzhen had ranked first as the most competitive of mainland cities since 2006.

    Shenzhen authorities may find solace in some technical explanations. According to Ni Pengfei, the chief editor of the assessment report, in the previous reports, the combination of the registered permanent resident population and the temporary population was used as a basis for all the data. In the latest report, however, the permanent population was adopted. The adjustment pulled Shenzhen’s ranking back to the fifth place in 2009 instead of first. In this sense, Shenzhen actually moved forward in 2010, Ni pointed out.

    Ni also attributed Shenzhen’s drop in the competitiveness ranking to the worldwide economic crisis.

    Internationally, a city competitiveness assessment uses nine measures, including income, economic growth, innovation, jobs, prices and the presence of multinational firms. CASS’s assessment uses 12 measures, most of which are similar to the international measures. While no single index can fully reflect the actual situation, these generally accepted indicators give some useful indications of a city’s competitiveness.

    A “happiness competitiveness index,” a new measure, ranked Shenzhen 243rd, almost at the bottom. It is in stark contrast to Shenzhen’s high per capita GDP figure. A noteworthy phenomenon is the “reversed U tendency,” meaning the divergence between the economic advancement and the sense of happiness. Some developed cities including Shenzhen and Shanghai, ranked 205th, are experiencing a dwindling sense of happiness despite their economic success.

    The assessment is in line with what most Shenzhen citizens feel in their lives. Unbridled home prices are depriving millions of potential home buyers of a sense of belonging to the city. Seemingly high salaries pale in comparison with skyrocketing costs of housing.

    As a Shenzhen citizen, in recent years I’ve been keenly aware of an array of common maladies that haunt average cities: the gradual loss of momentum for development, the decline of initiative and enterprise — the very source of Shenzhen’s success — and the spawning of bureaucracy and incompetence.

    Shenzhen finished seventh in ecological environment competitiveness. No surprise, either. Compared with some ancient cities like Hangzhou, Shenzhen is more like an old senile person in many ways. Wandering around the city, you will marvel at the ultra-modern high rises in the downtown and CBD areas. Wandering into urban villages or old back streets, however, you may be appalled by the crumbling roads, foul living quarters and lousy wet markets. We are under the impression that nobody is running some parts of the city.

    Cities are so complicated and sophisticated that any list of rankings is bound to be a subject of contention. But it will do a lot of good to the city if it helps us confront our own weaknesses. Hopefully, Shenzhen wakes up to the harsh challenge and does something right now.

    (The author is an English tutor and a freelance writer. He can be reached at jw368@163.com.)