Beijing is bulging as its population has exceeded 17 million,
only 1 million to go to reach the ceiling the city government has
set for 2020.
The figure breaks down into 12.04 million holders of Beijing
"hukou", or household registration certificates, and 5.1 million
floating population, sources with the Ministry of Public Security
said at Monday's workshop on the country's management of
migrants.
Beijing municipal government announced last year it would limit
its population to 18 million by 2020.
Overpopulation is putting considerable pressure on the city's
natural resources and environment. And experts have warned the
current population, 17 million calculated at the end of June, is
already 3 million more than Beijing's resources can feed.
Given this year's baby boom, triggered by the superstitious
belief that babies born in the Chinese year of the pig are lucky,
analysts say there is little hope for an immediate slowdown in
Beijing's population growth, even with the post-Beijing Olympics
lull and soaring housing prices that have driven some Beijingers to
boom towns in the neighboring Hebei Province and Tianjin
Municipality.
Migrants, especially surplus rural laborers who have taken up
non-agricultural jobs in the city, have forcefully contributed to
the population explosion in recent years.
About 200 million migrants are working in cities across
China.
Last year, Ministry of Public Security proposed police
authorities in the migrants' home province should send "resident
police officers" to cities to help maintain public security at
major migrant communities, many of which are slums that are prone
to violence, robberies, drugs and gambling.
Resident policemen are currently at work in three cities:
Dongguan, a manufacturing center in Guangdong Province, Binzhou of
the central Hunan Province and Guigang of the southern Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The ministry has also demanded all cities to complete a
management information system of migrants' data by the end of
2009.
(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2007)