ACCORDING TO THE LATEST STATISTICS, the number of Chinese cities whose GDP exceeds 1 trillion yuan ($156.5 billion) is still growing, with Ningbo in Zhejiang province, and Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, joining the club, increasing the number of members to 16. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

With the top authorities making greater efforts to pursue high-quality development instead of high-speed growth, GDP growth is no longer the top priority for local governments. However, the GDP of a region or city is still an important index to measure their comprehensive economic strength, and thus the bigger, the better.

China's economy grew by 6.3 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year, maintaining a medium-high growth rate. That means China's economy has not lost its steam and its status as the world's second largest economy has been further consolidated. Therefore, the growing number of cities in China with GDP exceeding 1 trillion yuan is of great practical significance. In the face of the severe challenges at home and abroad, their growing number highlights the vitality of the Chinese economy, reflecting its strong resilience. And with Changsha, capital of Hunan province, and Zhengzhou in the central region now members of the 1 trillion yuan club it shows that the economic gap between the eastern and central regions is narrowing.

Each of the 16 cities in the club is an important economic support for its respective region, and their economic development is based on an intensive model, thus complying with the high-quality development standard. Given that these 16 cities are either located in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta or Bohai Bay region, or else are capital cities or traditional regional central cities, their economic development will not only result in the formation and development of city clusters and thus accelerate the country's urbanization, but will also facilitate China's efforts to advance the Belt and Road Initiative and development of a broader global market.

The booming economic development of these cities, along with some other cities that immediately lie behind there, is a symbol of China's economic vitality and high-quality development.