When talking about the hard and soft power of Shanghai as a metropolis, the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek project is probably the most convincing landmark that can be experienced and witnessed by the public. To make this mighty city great, it is important to translate its soft power into tangible results, such as material assets, governance systems, and citizen behaviors. A key aspect of enhancing Shanghai’s urban core competitiveness is to fuse its soft power with its hard power, so that the material infrastructure can be more appealing with cultural elements. Waterfront shoreline consolidation and ecological restoration are common in the transformation and development of cities at home and abroad. As the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek public space becomes a globally influential showcase of Shanghai’s local culture, we can see the alignment and integration of Shanghai’s hard and soft power as well as its openness, innovativeness, and inclusiveness.

The openness is reflected in the objectives of the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek waterfront space redevelopment project to show to the country and the rest of the world Shanghai’s new look of building a Chinese-style global city, and become a world-class waterfront belt and an urban living space with unique characteristics so as to show the unique charm of Shanghai as a metropolis.

The innovativeness is reflected in the renovation of historical features along the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek public space. As the mother rivers of Shanghai, the banks of the Huangpu River and the Suzhou Creek are filled with century-old historic buildings and industrial heritage. The Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek project does not involve excessive demolition and reconstruction of the old buildings but is more focused on the integration of the new and old to creatively preserve the complete historical and cultural context of the municipality.

Inclusiveness is reflected in the urban renewal during the building of a world-class living space. The original waterfront space of the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek includes properties belonged to different owners. However, they have chosen the greater good of society and overcome difficulties to help build run-through shorelines and shared spaces, showing the enlightened wisdom and humble generosity of the locals.

I would like to put it this way. Urban hard power and urban soft power are two hemispheres that can combine to make complete the human-centered development of Shanghai as a modern socialist international metropolis. As the upper hemisphere, Shanghai’s hard power is based on its global economic competitiveness and sustainable development competitiveness, with “five centers” and “four major functions” to be built; as the lower hemisphere, Shanghai’s soft power is based on the city’s morale competitiveness and urban governance competitiveness, and is to promote the city’s spirit of “be tolerant to diversity, be extraordinary, enlightened wisdom, and humble generosity” and its urban character of openness, innovativeness, and inclusiveness. While the hard power can attract people’s feet, the soft power is what wins their hearts. To make the city physically and emotionally enchanting, Shanghai must comprehensively enhance its urban core competitiveness and urban functionality. I believe that Shanghai will further integrate its urban hard and soft power in its future development and keep growing as a mighty and great modern international metropolis with Chinese characteristics.