Chinese Cities in Desperate Need of Competent Planning

In ominous language, the report by the Social Sciences Academic Press, a division of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, warns about impending 'urban diseases' caused the country's rapid transformation to a majority urban population.

"Urban diseases involve adverse affects generated when there is huge disparity between an urban center's resources and its social needs at crucial points in its development, and the functions of various overloaded sectors are thrown into disarray, it said.

In particular, the report cited a lack of provident city planning giving rise to such problems as traffic congestion and pollution."