Can't agree, China is a huge country both in land and population and its development is imbalanced. The situation you mentioned is true but only in few areas: north west provinces in particular. On the other hand, house price jumped about 20% in major cities this year because short of supply. That's why the price cap policy failed and they keep building new cities, these cities may be empty at the moment but they will be utilized very soon.
About your question, "Where will all the hypothetical inhabitants work?" Usually the city's functions will be defined before the development and some state owned factory will be moved from major coast city to new place to suit these functions. For example, Shanghai is now defined as a financial center but in 1980's it is actually an industry center. So the plan is huge, they took 30 years rebuilt Shanghai and they will spent another 30 years to rebuild other cities as well.
AGO Price at posting:
94.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
