成人直播

Zhixue Zhang^[1] and Sanbao Zhang^[2]

Overview

• Urban resilience refers to the capacity of a city's systems, businesses, institutions, communities, and individuals to survive, adapt, and thrive in the face of acute shocks and chronic stresses. In the context of economic globalization, building resilient cities is essential for urban areas to respond effectively to natural disasters and social risks.

• Wenzhou City's resilience in the face of various disasters is rooted in the organizational capabilities of the Wenzhou government and the strong relationships between the government, businesses, and citizens.

• In addition to essential hardware infrastructure, enhancing urban social resilience can be achieved through four key areas of effort: promoting a spirit of value creation and solidarity, leveraging digital intelligence technology in urban governance, developing an education system to enhance social resilience, and fostering a conducive business environment.

The timing and manner in which major disasters strike are often difficult to predict, making cities’ ability to identify potential risks and effectively mobilize resources for recovery critical to the society's sustainable economic and social development. The Normal Accident Theory suggests that the complex interactions and tight coupling within organizational structures make accidents inevitable—not merely due to superficial factors such as decision errors or hardware malfunctions. Therefore, improving organizational operations is crucial for enhancing urban resilience, which reflects the capacity of a city's systems, businesses, institutions, communities, and individuals to survive, adapt, and thrive in the face of both acute shocks and chronic stresses.

I. The Importance of Urban Resilience

At the beginning of the 21st century, a wave of resilient city planning and construction emerged in the West. In 2018, China issued its "Guiding Opinions on Promoting Urban Safety Development." Following this, the State Council's Work Safety Committee led the National Safety Development Demonstration Cities Evaluation and Management Program, marking a large-scale initiative to enhance urban resilience in China. So far, cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, have incorporated urban resilience into their overall planning. The National Natural Science Foundation of China, supporting the "Millennium Plan" and the construction of Xiong'an New Area, launched the "Resilient Xiong'an" emergency project. Notably, Chinese cities such as Huangshi, Deyang, Haiyan, and Yiwu were selected for the Rockefeller Foundation's "100 Resilient Cities" initiative, actively exploring international cooperation in resilient city construction.

In 2020, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed "building sponge cities and resilient cities" from a national strategic perspective. Subsequently, the 20th Party Congress in 2022 emphasized, "Cities are built by the people, and are for the people. Urban planning, construction, and governance should be enhanced to accelerate the transformation of mega-cities' development modes. Urban renewal should be implemented and urban infrastructure strengthened to create livable, resilient, and smart cities."

1. Urban Resilience to Enhance Risk Management

In the context of economic globalization, building resilient cities is essential for urban areas to effectively respond to natural and social risks. In recent years, natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons, accidents like explosions and collapses, and public health crises like epidemics and social security events have profoundly impacted urban areas worldwide. As inter-area risk coupling and cascading effects increase, disaster chains and affected regions expand significantly. Cities, as major economic and population hubs, often face multiple impacts from primary and secondary disasters. These disasters can also affect surrounding areas or even distant regions globally, posing significant challenges to cities' recovery efforts.

2. Strategic Significance of Building Resilient Cities

Building resilient cities aligns with the strategic decision to foster people-centered urbanization. As China's urbanization transitions from rapid development to maturity, a development pattern characterized by the dominance of central cities, city clusters, and metropolitan areas has emerged. In 2021, the urbanization rate of the resident population reached 64.72%, with 19 city clusters housing over 70% of the population and contributing over 80% of the economy. Between 2010 and 2020, some large cities saw resident population increases by millions, with some districts having densities of over 20,000 people per square kilometer. As cities continue to expand, the rapid influx of various production elements into urban areas exacerbates risks and vulnerabilities. When urbanization outpaces the evolution of social institutions and the ecosystem's regenerative capacity, the balance between human society and nature is disrupted, leading to numerous urban safety issues.

3. Enhancing Urban Resilience to Improve Public Governance

Enhancing urban resilience is an integral part of modernizing the government's emergency crisis management systems and capabilities. Resilient city construction involves multiple stakeholders, requiring enhanced government cohesion, authority, and coordination between administrative agencies and integration with society through information sharing and policy communication. The mechanisms of cross-boundary crises and cascading risks emphasize the government's emergency mobilization and rapid support capabilities to prevent the spread of risks in the shortest time. The complexity of urban issues also calls for diverse public services, requiring the government to quickly transform functions, interact positively with social organizations, and respond swiftly to public needs.

II. The Wenzhou Model for a Resilient City

Wenzhou's resilience in the face of various disasters stems from both the organizational capabilities of the Wenzhou government and strong relationships between the government and businesses, as well as between the government and citizens.

1. Proactive Service-Oriented Government

(a) Fostering a Healthy Government-Business Relationship

The non-public economy is a vital component of the Chinese socialist market economy, playing a positive role in meeting diverse market demands, creating employment opportunities, and promoting economic development. President Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the development of the non-public economy. In recent years, Wenzhou has made pioneering efforts in fostering a "close" yet "clean" government-business relationship through initiatives like the "Two Health" (the healthy development of both the economy and society) Pioneer Zones, the "Private Entrepreneurs' Day" on November 1 every year, and the "Three Lists and One Commitment" system focusing on government-business interactions and encouraging integrity in businesses.

To support businesses' entrepreneurial endeavors, Wenzhou has systematically established an emergency response system for entrepreneurs, implemented a major enterprise-related case risk reporting system, and actively promoted flexible law enforcement for enterprises. Additionally, Wenzhou launched the "Ten Thousand Cadres into Ten Thousand Enterprises" initiative, pairing government officials with enterprises to assist with administrative procedures. Furthermore, Wenzhou is working on improving the "government commitment + social supervision + accountability for dishonesty" mechanism to ensure the fulfillment of policy commitments and foster a culture of continuous government efforts.

(b) Proactive Emergency Response System

As a coastal city frequently affected by typhoons and hydrological disasters, Wenzhou’s communities and local leadership at all levels have established a set of procedures for disaster management and relief. These efforts include establishing a comprehensive emergency rescue team and organizational system, as well as streamlining emergency response processes. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 tested the resilience of this system, with precise and efficient epidemic control highlighting the proactivity and responsibility of party committees, governments, and cadres at all levels. The subsequent swift and orderly resumption of business and production further demonstrated the urban resilience and vitality achieved through top-down guidance and mobilization, combined with bottom-up cooperation and response.

2. Rapid Response and Adaptation by Enterprises

(a) Enhanced Enterprise Risk Resilience

Wenzhou is known for its active manufacturing and export economy. Through diligent operations, many Wenzhou enterprises have developed unique advantages and secured stable market shares, resulting in relatively high levels of risk resilience. For example, while the operations of most enterprises and factories in China were disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic, some Wenzhou enterprises successfully navigated these challenges and maintained communication with domestic and international customers, thus sustaining performance growth and laying a solid foundation for the subsequent resumption of work and production.

(b) Innovative Enterprise Operations

With the rapid development of the digital economy driving productivity growth and the evolution of production relations, new requirements for industrial digital transformation have emerged. Wenzhou enterprises have actively embraced digital transformation as a key strategy to accelerate the upgrading of traditional industries and the development of emerging sectors. This initiative has mitigated the impact of emergencies like the pandemic on their operations and has significantly facilitated the resumption of work and production.

III. Directions for Building Resilient Cities

Based on Wenzhou's experience in building a resilient city, this document proposes four key directions for enhancing social resilience.

1. Institutionalizing Volunteer Services and Promoting a Spirit of Value Creation and Solidarity

Adequate material resources are the foundation for addressing risks and challenges and maintaining urban resilience. Over four decades of reform and opening-up, China's urban and rural areas have undergone significant changes, with rural poverty eradicated under current standards. Going forward, effective measures should be taken to promote the spirit of value creation and solidarity across society, encouraging mutual help and cooperation. Governments and organizations at all levels should create more platforms and opportunities for volunteer services and enhance their positive role in social governance. Society should aim to further promote the spirit of dedication, friendship, mutual help, and progress by institutionalizing and normalizing volunteer services, laying a solid social foundation for building resilient cities.

2. Leveraging Digital Intelligence Technology in Urban Governance

Digital intelligence technology, which combines digital and artificial intelligence capabilities, enables innovations in operational systems and technologies. Enhancing urban capacities and resilience through digital intelligence is a crucial strategy for optimizing urban governance and improving residents' quality of life and security. Constructing digital infrastructure can effectively link various urban systems and departments, while big data and artificial intelligence can be utilized to analyze multi-modal data, improving urban governance and aiding decision-making in city operations and development. At the same time, it is essential to institutionalize and standardize data collection and usage to safeguard both private and public safety, ensuring that digital technology does not become merely a convenient control tool or lead to lazy governance detached from the populace and practical realities. Overall, leveraging digital technology to enhance urban resilience presents significant opportunities and challenges for urban governance.

3. Developing an Education System to Enhance Social Resilience

Effective organizational effectiveness hinges on people, and people-centered approaches are fundamental to cultivating urban resilience. Compared to the traditional perception of urban resilience that focuses solely on collective disaster prevention, a humanistic perspective of urban resilience emphasizes the resilience of individual members of society. Both personal and social resilience derives from the capabilities and qualities of individuals or groups to respond to crises; therefore, the enhancement of social resilience necessitates the establishment of an education system that cultivates the crisis response and risk prevention capabilities of society. With a quality education system that fosters a socially conscious, organizationally aligned, and professionally capable workforce, cities can maximally utilize their population dividend and improve urban resilience through enhanced human capital.

4. Creating a Conducive Business Environment

A favorable business environment, encompassing institutional and systemic factors that positively affect market participants' economic activities, is a vital component of a city's soft power. Establishing a market-driven, legally sound, international, and efficient business environment is crucial for fostering urban development and is an essential strategy for building resilient cities. Therefore, cities should strategically enhance the business environment by setting benchmarks and addressing current weaknesses. Key areas of focus include:

Firstly, cultivating a competitive market environment. Efforts may include enhancing the financial environment to meet the needs of market participants, increasing investment in R&D and patent protection to drive innovation and industrial upgrading, reforming regulatory frameworks and strengthening industry self-regulation to promote market fairness, and reducing resource acquisition costs. Additionally, efforts should accelerate the construction of a comprehensive and accessible intermediary service system.

Secondly, establishing an efficient and transparent administrative environment. Efforts may include developing a "close" yet "clean" government-business relationship and strengthening support for private enterprises, deepening reforms to streamline administrative processes and improve service delivery, and accelerating the transition to a fully transparent and corruption-free government.

Thirdly, ensuring a fair and transparent legal environment. Efforts may include guaranteeing judicial fairness and transparency, improving public access to judicial services, enhancing intellectual property protection, and strengthening public order and crime prevention to maintain a stable social and business environment.

Fourthly, fostering an open and inclusive cultural environment. Efforts may include promoting the mutual benefits of international trade openness, encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit, enhancing the social credit system, and elevating a city's cultural appeal.

Lastly, clearly defining the city's strategic positioning. Efforts should include effectively leveraging the city's unique strengths and comparative advantages, and fostering collaboration within city clusters and metropolitan areas to achieve resource sharing, complementary strengths, and mutually beneficial development.