COVID-19 response and economy of Chinese cities from the perspective of China Integrated City Index 2020

II. Strength and resilience of Chinese cities amid COVID-19 pandemic

Given that the principal theme of 2020 worldwide was COVID-19 prevention and control, the China Integrated City Index 2020 has evaluated the COVID-19 response and economic recovery of Chinese cities over the year from the dimensions of society, economy, and environment.

In terms of the COVID-19 situation, 80.8 percent of the newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in 2020 (excluding imported cases and asymptomatic cases) were in top 10 cities, all of which are within Hubei province. Rapidly adopted lockdown measures and the zero-COVID-19 policy quickly brought the outbreak under control, preventing other Chinese cities from explosive spread of the virus.

Thanks to the rapid control of the outbreak under the zero-COVID-19 policy, people in Chinese cities quickly resumed their life. Take entertainment in everyday life as an example. Though the movie market was one of the sectors hit hard by COVID-19, and China's box office saw a slump of 68.2 percent in 2020, this decrease was relatively smaller than that of other major box offices worldwide such as the North America one, and a strong rebound made China the world's largest movie market of the year. "The Eight Hundred," a domestic production in China, topped the global box office for 2020, and another three Chinese movies ranked among the top 10 global box office hits of the year, namely "My Country, My Homeland" (4th), "Legend of Deification" (8th), and "A Little Red Flower" (9th). In addition, "The Sacrifice" ranked 14th. The strong rebound in the Chinese movie market pushed a number of Chinese movies to the top of the global box office.

Air transportation was also hit hard by COVID-19. Especially in the case of long-term restrictions on international travel, the passenger throughput of airports in cities declined drastically, altogether resulting in a 36.6 percent decrease in the passenger throughput of airports nationwide. Fortunately, air transportation in the country resumed thanks to its rapid control of the outbreak, and the decline in passenger throughput of its airports was relatively smaller compared with European countries, the US, and Japan.

The top 10 Chinese cities in terms of passenger throughput of airports in 2020 are Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Kunming, Xi'an, Hangzhou, and Zhengzhou. Their aggregate accounted for 44.9 percent of the whole country, and the proportion of the top 30 cities was as high as 75.5 percent, demonstrating that China's air transportation concentrated in hub cities.

Compared with the passenger throughput, the cargo throughput of airports across the country merely decreased by 6 percent. The top 10 Chinese cities in this term in 2020 are Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Nanjing, and Xi'an. Four of them — Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, and Nanjing — even saw an increase in cargo throughput, showing the vitality of logistics and the rapid recovery of manufacturing supply chains amid the pandemic. The aggregate of the top 10 cities accounted for 72.8 percent of the whole country, and the proportion of the top 30 cities was as high as 92.5 percent, demonstrating an even higher concentration level of air cargo transportation in hub cities than passenger transportation.

Despite the disruption in global supply chains and global shipping amid the pandemic, which even continues to this day, most Chinese port cities saw an increase in container throughput in 2020, and the national port throughput registered a 1.2 percent increase, showing the strong resilience of China's manufacturing sector in export. The top 10 Chinese cities in terms of port container throughput in 2020 are Shanghai, Ningbo, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Tianjin, Xiamen, Suzhou, Yingkou, and Dalian, among which only Dalian registered a negative growth. Their aggregate occupied 70.8 percent of the whole country, and the proportion of the top 30 cities was as high as 92.6 percent, demonstrating that China's port transportation concentrated in certain cities.

China's export industries were hit hard by the pandemic in the first half of 2020, but saw a strong rebound in the second half. The top 10 Chinese cities in terms of the radiation ability of manufacturing in 2020 are Shenzhen, Suzhou, Dongguan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Foshan, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Wuxi, and Hangzhou. All but three of them — Suzhou, Dongguan, and Wuxi — achieved export growth. It was the strength of these cities in manufacturing that enabled China's export volume to grow by 4 percent in 2020. Their aggregate export volume took up 44.2 percent of the national total, and the proportion of the top 30 cities was as high as 71.7 percent, showing that China's export industries concentrated in these cities with large manufacturing scale and great manufacturing strength.

The year 2020 marked strides ahead of the IT industry. Digital COVID-19 response, telecommuting, online teaching, telemedicine, video conferencing, and online shopping became the norm as the pandemic dramatically pushed for the digital transformation of all sectors and people's life. The top 10 Chinese cities in terms of the radiation ability of the IT industry in 2020 are Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing, Fuzhou, Wuhan, and Xiamen. Their aggregate of IT industry employment and listed companies in the industry on the main board, the SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) board, and the GEM (growth enterprise market) board accounted for 56.7 percent, 80.4 percent, 63.9 percent, and 76.2 percent of the national total, respectively, showing that the IT industry further concentrated in hub cities.

With its effective zero-COVID-19 policy, China achieved a commendable 2.3 percent economic growth in 2020 when other major economies in the world registered negative growth in general. Except for Wuhan, which was hit hard by COVID-19, all of the top 30 Chinese cities in terms of GDP achieved economic growth in 2020, fully demonstrating the resilience of Chinese cities in the face of difficulties brought by COVID-19. The top 10 Chinese cities in terms of GDP in 2020 are Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Suzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Wuhan, and Nanjing. Their aggregate GDP accounted for 23.3 percent of the national total, and the proportion of the top 30 cities was up to 43 percent, showing that China's economic growth concentrated in cities ranking high in this term.