Beijing government officials announced on Sunday that measures to limit the city's population will be enforced to achieve the population ceiling of 23 million permanent residents come 2020. 

City Mayor Wang Anshun said that the government will continue to relocate people from downtown areas to suburban areas, aiming a 15 percent drop of permanent population from 2014. 

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Currently, 21.7 million people are permanent residents and this figure is likely to grow despite the city's slowest growth in years. Beijing's annual population growth rate for the past five years stood at 2 percent, a three percent dip from 2010's five percent.

"It has been difficult to simply force out the people without finding proper destinations for the relocated population," Beijing Vice Mayor Li Shixiang said.

The government applied various strategic adjustment of city functions and relocation of different industries, mainly manufacturing.

This includes a new administrative center in Tongzhou, about 40 minutes drive from the city center. If successful, 400,000 residents from the city center will be relocated there. Hospitals at the Dongcheng district will follow the same path.

Similarly, manufacturing companies will be moved out of the city proper to new towns and other outlying regions. 

The population cap is one of the city's answer to worsening traffic congestion, air pollution, and other harmful environmental problems mainly caused by overpopulation.

The 23-million goal limit is based on the maximum capacity of natural resources and was agreed upon at the annual tripartite meeting, known as "two sessions." It involves the local government, the Municipal People's Congress, and the Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference

TagsBeijing, China overpopulation, population growth in China