(File photo)

China aims to support the development of emerging cities but not to expand the scale of cities, said a former official in charge of urban and rural development.

Qiu Baoxing, former vice minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said that it is more important to improve the quality of cities' development rather than to expand the scale of a city.

Qiu said that cities of different scales have different functions. International cities should play a role in competition for talents, information and high-end strategic resources; ordinary big cities should play a leading role in regional new-type industrialization and informatization and small towns should play roles in supporting agricultural industry.

Yang Weimin, deputy director of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs, said in December 2015 that China should speed up the development of several central cities which undertake nationwide functions, drive regional development and serve as new growth points.