A report released in Beijing on May 30 shows Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Shanghai have been ranked the top three Chinese cities with the most comprehensive economic competitiveness in 2015, however, their "urban diseases" are also increasingly worsening.

The report was jointly issued by the National Academy of Economic Strategy of China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the China Social Sciences Press and City and Competitiveness Research Center along with CASS. It conducted research regarding 294 cities related to comprehensive economic competitiveness as well as regarding 289 cities to consider sustainable competitiveness in the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao.

The top ten cities ranked for comprehensive competitiveness are Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Taipei, Tianjin, Beijing, Suzhou, Macao and Wuxi. The ranking has not changed significantly compared to that of 2014, except that Guangzhou has overtaken Taipei to elevate to the fourth place and Beijing surpassed Suzhou to occupy the seventh position.

The report notes that from the regional distribution of the top ten cities, they are mainly concentrated in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, Bohai Sea and the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions and not a single one of them are is a city situated in the middle or west of China.

However, cities with relatively strong competitiveness also suffer increasingly serious "urban diseases", according to the report. Shenzhen, Beijing, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Guangzhou, Jinan, Shanghai, Xi'an, Foshan and Shijiazhuang are ranked the top ten with worsening "urban disease"

The report attributes the excessive accumulation of a single population center as a key reason leading to urban diseases.