's provisional office at Xiong'an By 2014, China's
central government was considering to relocate a number of Beijing's administrative and back office functions to Baoding. According to the memoir
Dealing with China by
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson,
Xi Jinping,
General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, told him personally in July 2014, and said the idea was his "own personal initiative". On 26 February 2014, after hearing reports from Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, Xi considered the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei as an important national strategy. After that, rumors such as "Baoding will become a political subcenter", "Baiyangdian City" and "Baiyangdian Free Trade Zone" surfaced on the Internet. Although the "New Urbanization Plan of Hebei Province" issued on 26 March of that year did not mention "subcenter", it was clear that some of Beijing's capital functions would be relieved. On 10 February 2015, at the 9th meeting of the
Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs, Xi put forward the idea of “duō diǎn yī chéng, lǎo chéng chóngzǔ” (多点一城、老城重组) when considering the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Joint Development Plan. Specifically, "One City" (一城) is to study and plan to build a new city outside Beijing. On 2 and 30 April 2015, Xi presided over successive meetings of the Politburo Standing Committee and Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party to discuss the "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development Plan", and considered the planning to build a modern new city in a suitable site in Hebei. On 27 May 2016, the Politburo reviewed the "Report on the Planning and Construction of Beijing's Subcenter and Research on the Establishment of Hebei Xiong'an New District". This was the first time that "Xiong'an" appeared in the title of a report. The Politburo approved the "Implementation Plan for the Study of the Establishment of the Xiong'an New Area in Hebei", and the preparations for the plan were immediately carried out under a high degree of confidentiality. On 1 April 2017, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council issued a notice, deciding to establish the Xiong'an New Area. In the announcement, Xiong'an New Area was positioned as a "millennium plan and a national event". In the wake of the announcement, local property prices and shares of construction companies soared. To counter the chaotic property market, authorities froze purchases and closed real estate offices. Xi, during a visit to Helsinki, Finland, gave instructions to prevent real estate speculation. The same day, on 1 April 2017, the Provincial Government and the
Hebei Provincial Party Committee decided to establish the Preparatory Work Committee and the Provisional Party Committee of the Xiong'an New Area. These were transitional institutions, under the authority of the
Hebei Provincial Party Committee and the
Provincial Government, responsible for organizing, leading, and coordinating the overall development and construction of Xiong'an New Area, performing the functions of organizing, coordinating, supervising political, economic, cultural, social, ecological activities in Xiong'an New Area. On 2 April, a meeting of leading cadres was held in Rongcheng County. At the meeting, it was agreed that in the next step, management and control should continue to be a top priority, especially on land issues. The government must do a good job of management and control, communicating and propagating at all levels, and managing the power grid. The needs of the people need to be addressed as much as possible, and on the basis of strengthening management and control, it is necessary to accelerate housing relocation, planning and construction. The provincial government has also decided to assign a party cadre committee to temporarily take over the cadre work. On 3 April, the Preparatory Work Committee and Provisional Party Committee of Xiong'an New Area began working in Rongcheng County, temporarily renting Ao Wei International Hotel as an office location. On 21 June 2017, at the working group meeting on planning and construction of Xiong'an New Area in Hebei Province, Xu Qin, the Governor of Hebei Province, read out the "Reply of the Central Organization Office on issues related to the establishment of management agencies in Xiong'an New Area in Hebei Province". Accordingly, the Xiong'an New Area Working Committee and the Xiong'an New Area Management Committee in Hebei, which were dispatched by the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government, would be established. They were responsible for organizing, leading and coordinating the development and construction of Xiong'an New Area, as well as the overall work on development and construction management of the districts Xiong County, Anxin County, Rongcheng County and surrounding areas. At first, the Party Working Committee and the Xiong'an Management Committee established the Party and Government Office, Department of Reform and Development, Department of Planning and Construction, Department of Public Affairs and Department of Safety Supervision. were added. On 22 February 2018, Xi chaired a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee to hear a report on the planning and preparation work for the construction of the Hung'an New Are, approving the planning framework in principle. On 14 April 2018, "Outline Planning of Hebei Xiong'an New Area" was approved by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council. On 21 April, China's official
Xinhua News Agency released the planning guidelines for the project, which specify that the city is planned to be erected by 2035 and to be completed by the mid-21st century. According to the guidelines, it is aiming to be a high-level socialist modern city that will be environmentally friendly and be connected by the
high-speed rail network that will take 20 minutes to travel to the new
Beijing airport and 30 minutes to Beijing and
Tianjin. On 25 December, "The Master Plan of Hebei Xiong'an New Area (2018–2035)" was approved by the State Council. On 4 January 2019, the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Hebei Province approved the appointment of Liu Guanghui as chairman, Member of the Judiciary Committee, and Judge of the People's Court and Ji Zhiming as the chief prosecutor of the Xiong'an Procuratorate. Xu Yaotong, a professor at the National School of Administration, believed that Xiong'an New Area may be transformed into an administrative unit of Hebei Provincial Government in the future. On 7 May 2019, resettlement work in Xiong'an officially started. On 2 August 2019, the State Council approved the establishment of the China (Hebei) Pilot Free Trade Zone, which included Xiong'an. On 29 July 2021, the "Hebei Xiong'an New Area Regulations" (河北雄安新区条例) was adopted at the 24th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Hebei People's Congress, stipulating that the Xiong'an New Area Management Committee is an agency directly under the Government of Hebei Province. This committee exercises economic and social management powers granted by the state and Hebei province. The regulations were officially implemented on 1 September 2021. ==Politics==