Strengthen and improve the role of the "power source," as the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan repeatedly mentions the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Beijing News (Reporter Cao Jingrui) - Over the next five years, how can we deepen and solidify the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei? On March 13, the “Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China” was released. A review by the reporter found that the plan repeatedly mentions “Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei.”

This year marks the 12th anniversary of the implementation of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development strategy. After more than a decade of dedicated efforts, the three regions have achieved a historic leap in coordinated development and have become an important driving force for high-quality growth. From the “15th Five-Year” plan outline, it is clear that the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei is positioned as one of the “driving sources” of development, with specific development paths and further goals set.

In terms of “enhancing regional development coordination,” the “15th Five-Year” plan emphasizes consistently implementing regional development strategies, tailoring measures to local conditions, encouraging regions to leverage their comparative advantages, and promoting coordinated development across east, central, and western regions as well as north and south, fostering relative balance in development. It explicitly states, “Consolidate and enhance the role of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as driving sources.”

Specifically, over the next five years, there will be a deepening of the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei to form a more integrated all-around development pattern. Efforts will be made to steadily and prudently ease non-capital functions from Beijing, continue to implement landmark relocation projects and policies, optimize and upgrade the capital’s functions, and build a modern capital metropolitan area. The construction of the Xiong’an New Area will be advanced to a high standard and high quality, with improvements to management systems. The comprehensive service level of Beijing’s sub-center will be raised, and the overall capacity of Tianjin Binhai New Area will be enhanced.

Regarding “promoting regional linkage development,” the “15th Five-Year” plan clearly states that, based on cross-regional and cross-basin corridors, with urban agglomeration development as the carrier and institutional mechanisms as guarantees, efforts will be made to promote mutual integration and mutual benefit among regions, expanding the domestic circulation space. It mentions strengthening integration and coordinated linkage of key urban clusters, promoting efficient collaboration along innovation chains and industrial chains, and supporting the development of world-class urban clusters in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

In January 2026, the “Modern Capital Metropolitan Area Spatial Coordination Plan (2023-2035)” was officially approved, delineating the concentric structure of the capital metropolitan area from three dimensions: commuting, functions, and industries. The commuting zone will focus on job-residence coordination and improving urban integration mechanisms; the functional zone will focus on relocation and enhancement to strengthen the core competitiveness of the metropolitan area; the industrial coordination zone will implement the main functional zone strategy and strengthen division and cooperation. Guided by this blueprint, the process of transforming Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei into a world-class urban cluster will accelerate, playing a significant role in optimizing and upgrading the capital’s functions, creating regional growth poles of high-quality development, and advancing Chinese-style modernization.

The reporter notes that in terms of “continuously improving environmental quality,” the “15th Five-Year” plan also mentions “Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei.” It states the need to “deeply fight the battles for blue skies, clean water, and pure land,” focusing on key regions such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Fenwei Plain. Efforts will be made to strengthen control of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), promote ultra-low emission transformations in key industries, push for source substitution and full-process governance of volatile organic compounds, develop standards for vehicle emissions and fuel quality in the next phase, deepen atmospheric environment performance grading management, and aim for nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds emissions to decrease by more than 8%, further eliminating heavy pollution weather.

Editor: Liu Mengjie

Proofreader: Liu Jun