Integrated megapolises, next stage of Chinese reforms

LAST November, Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired a Shanghai symposium on advancing the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). Half a decade before, he had championed the initiative that made the integrated development of the delta region a national strategy.

In light of development, integrated megapolises represent the next stage of reforms and opening-up. It is vital to Chinese modernization. It could also provide lessons to the Philippines, but that would require the kind of decentralization and federalism that the Duterte government hoped to achieve — not its current diluted forms.