Shanghai global goal a tough one

"Strong innovation, operations management and services are basic characteristics of global cities," said Quan. "To become a global center, Shanghai must find its special position in the world, which is based on its further integration into the Yangtze River Delta."

Zeng said that the booming city cluster in the Yangtze River Delta forms a solid foundation for Shanghai's rise and regional integration into a "big" Shanghai. "Shanghai is also a joining point of the Maritime Silk Road and Silk Road Economic Belt."

These are two strategies proposed by Chinese leaders to promote international trade and cooperation.

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Zuo Xuejin, a demographer and councilor of the Shanghai government, said that before the central government attempts to coordinate all the city governments in the delta region, Shanghai should try to build some public infrastructure with such neighbors as Kunshan and Taicang in Jiangsu province.

Regional integration should bring with it more efficient land use and resource distribution, rather than simple expansion of the urban area.

Critics are concerned that the research project undertaken by Zeng's team will not go anywhere if the government continues to rely on revenue from land transfers and regards urbanization as the primary way to boost investment-driven growth.

Last month, the city government decided the built-up area of Shanghai will be limited to 3,226 square kilometers, and that area will not expand after 2020.

That means the city has only 156 sq km of land for new buildings in the next six years. But in the past six years, the area of built-up land in Shanghai expanded by twice that much.

Zeng must bear in mind the baselines and always be clear about researchers' limited influence on local governors in Shanghai.

Some officials have worked their way up to the central government from Shanghai. But they have not made Shanghai a reform pioneer or even a model city in China.

It is quicker to boost economic growth through increasing investment in the property market.

The easy money from land transfers also further emboldens the government to interfere with other market activities such as borrowing money.

These are all working against the government's goal of becoming a global center city. If Zeng's research does not lead to the transformation of government, the road map proposed by Zeng will be hard to follow.