This article focuses on the housing issues of rural migrants arising from urbanization, with particular reference to "chengzhongcun", a topic with considerable impact on policymaking. An attempt is made to understand the underlying rationale of self-help in housing and the important role of chengzhongcun in sheltering rural migrants in the context of China's rural-urban dichotomy. As demonstrated in this study, chengzhongcun accommodate, with little in the way of government resources and assistance, millions of rural migrants because of their social accessibility and affordability. While not denying their social problems, we argue that chengzhongcun in fact act as an innovative and positive agent to promote urbanization in present day China by housing massive numbers of rural migrants and assimilating them into cities. Current government policies towards chengzhongcun have generated a wide range of interest conflicts and confrontations. The consequences of such conflicts show that the government policies were problematic and unworkable, as they violated basic market principles as well as citizen rights. Policy strategy towards the redevelopment of chengzhongcun must acknowledge their credibility in the Chinese road to urbanization and requires more thoughtful and prudent consideration of migrants' demands for affordable housing. Copyright (c) Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003.
China is experiencing rapid growth in urbanization in the current transitional period, but the real level of China's urbanization remains unclear, although no longer mysterious. The problem stems not from deficiency of published data, but from inconsistencies and ambiguities in China's official data on the urban population. In China, four major factors affect the size of urban population and therefore the urbanization level: the criteria for designating a settlement as urban, the physical and administrative boundaries of places so demarcated, the household registration (hukou) system and the urban status of floating people. The controversies related to these four factors include what kind of settlements should be included in the urban territory and what kind of people should be included in the urban population. Our objectives in this paper are: (1) to clarify current understandings on and to examine the weaknesses in China's urban concept and official data; and (2) to readjust China's urban population data and hence the level of urbanization in line with both the international practice and the situation found in China. Drawing on a comprehensive review of the official criteria for urban designation and the official indicators for urban population, we first identify the important issues that create confusion and controversies. This background is then used to develop a conceptual framework for an estimate of China's urban population. Finally, based on a series empirical studies, China's urban population and urbanization level adjusted.
Zhao S. X. B. and Zhang L. (2007) Foreign Direct Investment and the formation of global city-regions in China, Regional Studies 41, 979-994. FDI inflows have redrawn the map of China's geo-economy, reinforcing spatial clustering of economy. Currently, certain Chinese urbanized regions along the Pacific coast, notably the Pearl River Delta region (PRD) in South China, the Yangtze River Delta region (YRD) in Southeast China and the Bohai Rim region (BRR) in North China, have become the agglomerative centres for a variety of the Fordist-style of manufacturing operation. As a strong outward linkage is the major engine of growth in those extended metropolitan regions, they are often labelled as global city-regions. This paper attempts to provide a more comprehensive explanation of the questions about how global city-regions have come into being and what processes have interacted to produce global city-regions in China, focusing on the period shortly before and after China's accession into the WTO. After reviewing the extant theoretical perspectives, this paper attempts to construct the trajectory of Chinese global city-region growth based mainly on empirically derived knowledge on FDI in China with investigation on both external and internal dynamics. Zhao S. X. B. et Zhang L. (2007) L'investissement direct etranger et l'etablissement de cites-regions mondiales en Chine, Regional Studies 41, 979-994. L'afflux d'IDE a redessine la carte geo-economique de la Chine, renforcant l'agglomeration geographique de son economie. A l'heure qu'il est, certaines regions urbanisees de la Chine situees le long de la cote du Pacifique, notamment la region du Pearl River Delta (PRD) dans la Chine du Sud, la region du Yangtze River Delta (YRD) dans la Chine du Sud-Est, et la region de la Bohai Rim (BRR) dans la Chine du Nord, sont devenues les centres d'agglomeration pour toute une serie d'activites industrielles du type fordiste. Etant donne que des liens externes s'averent la force motrice de la croissance dans ces zones metropolitaines etendues, ces dernieres sont souvent classees comme cites-regions mondiales. Cet article cherche a fournir une explication plus detaillee des origines des cites-regions mondiales et des actions reciproques qui ont vu naitre les cites-regions en Chine, portant sur la periode juste avant et apres l'adhesion de la Chine a l'OMC. Apres avoir fait la critique des apercus theoriques existants, on cherche a dessiner le chemin de la croissance des cites-regions en Chine, principalement a partir des connaissances empiriques a propos de l'IDE en Chine, tout en examinat a la fois les dynamiques externe et interne. IDE Cites-regions mondiales OMC Chine Zhao S. X. B. und Zhang L. (2007) Auslandische Direktinvestitionen und die Entstehung globaler Stadtregionen in China, Regional Studies 41, 979-994. Durch den Zufluss von auslandischen Direktinvestitionen hat sich das Bild der chinesischen Geookonomie gewandelt und die raumliche Clusterbildung in der Wirtschaft verstarkt. Heute sind in China bestimmte urbanisierte ...
Literature on how cities get connected through networks of firms has been increasing in recent years. In particular, advanced producer service (APS) firms are being widely used to build intra-firm linkages to establish urban networks. In contrast to studies applying intra-firm networks, this study proposes an alternative strategy to build urban networks based on inter-firm service provision relationships during the process of initial public offering (IPO) in which APS firms – including securities, law firms and accounting firms – provide professional services for firms aiming to be publicly listed. Based on service provision connections between APS firms and their clients, this study provides fresh insights on urban networks in China. The results show that Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai strategically hold dominant positions within Chinese urban networks and they are the lead command and financial centres within the country. Particularly, Beijing has overwhelmingly more influence over other cities. The urban networks are embedded in China’s unique institutional context where market and state power together have shaped these networks. Since the urban network is built up based on real economic linkages, the findings might have further implications for policy-making and could contribute to ongoing debates regarding financial centres in China. It implies that connections between firms based on real economic activities can be an effective way to construct urban networks in future research.
This study explores, theoretically and empirically, one of the important issues of the geography of finance: the location of high-level financial services. Specifically, we will try to explain why foreign financial services are spatially concentrated on a particular city to form a national financial center in China. By reviewing various forces behind the formation of a financial center, we argue that information problems have created the necessity of the geographic agglomeration of financial activities in the source of information even in the era when financial markets have worked through sophisticated telecommunication networks. Based on the survey of the actual location of MNC regional headquarters and reasons of the headquarters agglomeration, we anticipate that Beijing, as the prime source of policy information, is more advantageous than other Chinese cities to be the national number one financial center when the Chinese financial markets become more open to foreign firms in the near future. Thus, this study illustrates, using China as a case, that geography still provides major justification of why major financial services continue to have a high degree of spatial agglomeration in particular locations, despite electronic transmission of information has substantially reduced the friction of distance.
Urban infrastructure has been substantially upgraded in reform-era China. This paper explains, contextually and empirically, how Chinese cities finance their infrastructure. It demonstrates that China has succeeded in addressing urban infrastructure backlogs by opening up new venues for financing, but simultaneously, heavily relying on unconventional sources. The paper also argues that urban infrastructure financing has much to do with the country’s transition to a market-oriented economy that fosters the pro-growth role of city governments as well as the redistribution of fiscal power between the levels of the urban hierarchy that produces significant variation of financial capacities among the different administrative ranks of cities.
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