China's Emerging Neoliberal Urbanism: Perspectives from Urban Redevelopment

Abstract

China's urbanization is undergoing profound neoliberal shifts, within which urban redevelopment has emerged in the forefront of neoliberalization. This study aims to understand China's emerging neoliberal urbanism by examining the association between urban redevelopment and neoliberalism. Rather than a deliberate design, neoliberalization in China is a response to multiple difficulties/crises and the desire for rapid development. The neoliberalization process is full of controversies and inconsistencies, which involve conflicts between neoliberal practices and social resistance, and tensions between central and local states. Nevertheless, China's neoliberal urbanism has a responsive and resilient system to cope with the contradictions and imbalances inherent in neoliberalism. Meanwhile, neoliberal urbanism is more tangible at the sub-national scale, since the local state can most effectively assist neoliberal experiments and manage crises. This study not only contributes to the understanding of China's neoliberal urbanism, but also has multiple implications for neoliberalism studies in general. First, in examining the interrelationship between the state and market, it is the actual effect of legitimizing and facilitating market operation rather than the presence (or absence) of the state that matters. Second, a new nexus of governance has formed in the neoliberalization process. Not only the nation state but also the local state is of great significance in assisting and managing neoliberal projects. Third, this study further validates the importance and necessity of scrutinizing neoliberal practices, in particular the controversies and inconsistencies within the neoliberalization process.

Emerging Chinese Cities: Implications for Global Urban Studies

“…Given a very different historical context, it is a surprise to see that Chinese cities demonstrate features remarkably similar to the local competition state but with varying degrees of state persistence. These are noted as neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics (Harvey 2005), localized neoliberalization processes (He and Wu 2009), and state neoliberalism (Chu and So 2012). Despite complaining about the use of neoliberalism (Ong 2007), Chinese urban studies provide a wide middle range of explanations for the dynamism of entrepreneuriallike government behavior, which include the system of cadre promotion, GDP growth mentality, property rights ambiguity, fiscal policy and incentives, and land-based finance.…”

Japanese Cities in Chinese Perspective: Towards a Contextual, Regional Approach to Comparative Urbanism

“…Or it grows out of a reading of regional context and is designed to draw out difference as well as commonality within the regional context. It is precisely this sort of comparative urbanism that is being advocated here, not least because it affords the most robust basis for an understanding of the path-dependent nature of neoliberal urbanization (He and Wu, 2009). I go on to suggest that developmental state theory brings an invaluable regional perspective, out of which a contextually sensitive comparative urbanism can grow.…”

On the shifting spatial logics of socioeconomic regulation in post-1949 China

“…(He & Wu, 2009;Wu, 2015) • Central-local interaction began to shift from provincial to major centers of real estate development in leading city-regions (Tsing, 2010) • Increase overall economic productivity • Embed global production networks • Enhance competitiveness of SOEs 1949 -1978) • Economic space treated as a 'chessboard' by Chinese policymakers since the Mao-era (Zhao, 2009) • People's Communes formed to universalize the formation of production units in the rural hinterland; heavy industrial units (danweis) concentrated in cities, supported by rural economic production • Inter-unit interaction limited and controlled by the central government through mobility restrictions and trade barriers introduced on the premise of 'self-sufficiency' • National economy became 'cellular', held together by a centrally-determined spatial hierarchy (Donnithorne, 1972;Ma, 2005) • …”