Planning centrality, state-oriented growth, and the spatial evolution of development zones in urban China: The case of Wuhan’s Optics Valley

Abstract

As an important component of China’s efforts at reform and its opening-up policy, China’s development zones have been experiencing rapid development for nearly 40 years and have played a huge role in promoting the country’s economic growth, industrial development, technological innovation and urban construction. This article focuses on the changing priorities and objectives of high-tech development zones and how they have shaped the spatiality of development zones. We also analyse the role of urban planning in delivering these spatial changes thereby expanding on the concept of planning centrality which was introduced by Wu in his 2018 article ‘Planning centrality, market instruments: Governing Chinese urban transformation under state entrepreneurialism’. By drawing on the case of the Optics Valley of China (also known as Wuhan East Lake High-Tech Development Zone), we illustrate how development zones have evolved spatially over 30 years due to the changing needs of the national government as well as the Wuhan municipality. We categorise these changes to the project’s spatial form into three stages: from block to park, from park to urban area, and finally, from urban area to new city. These three stages signify the different priorities of the Chinese state starting from industrial development, to land-based accumulation and now focusing on delivering an ecological civilisation and attracting and retaining a highly skilled workforce. For each corresponding stage, urban planning has played a crucial role whereby the change from a block to park was driven by regulatory and strategic planning whilst for instance the change from an urban area to a new city required planning to focus more on the delivery of high-quality public spaces and amenities through detailed urban design guidance and schemes.

City-regional governance under state entrepreneurialism in China

“…The papers in this collection provide multiple angles to see city-regional governance. Some stress the reform of the planning system (Chen et al, 2023;Harrison and Gu, 2023;Hu et al, 2023), while others pay attention to bottom-up local entrepreneurialism (Geng et al, 2023;Zhang et al, 2023b). Despite this different emphasis, they all demonstrate that city-regional governance involves more strategic motivations of the multi-scalar state (Li and Jonas, 2023;Wang et al, 2023).…”

“…Despite this different emphasis, they all demonstrate that city-regional governance involves more strategic motivations of the multi-scalar state (Li and Jonas, 2023; Wang et al, 2023). These region-building activities all represent an effort to enhance coordination (Geng et al, 2023; Ramondetti, 2023). Although the state strategy is visible, this does not mean everything is well planned or achieved according to plan.…”

“…The contribution by Geng et al (2023, in this issue) focuses on the governance of the Optics Valley in Wuhan. The Optics Valley has developed from an enclave industrial zone into a new city with mixed land use and functions over 30 years.…”

Migration and migrants in Chinese cities: New trends, challenges and opportunities to theorise with urban China

“…Some of this diversification is because of China’s changing approach towards economic and urban development has given rise to new types of migrants. One major shift is China’s emphasis on expanding from its world factory economic model, which chiefly relies in the manufacturing industry and cheap labour, to developing the high tech and creative industries that rely on so-called high-skilled migrants (Cui, 2020; Geng et al, 2023; Zhang, 2015; Zhu et al, 2023). In order to attract high-skilled migrants, Chinese cities provide all sorts of benefits including subsidized talent housing.…”

“…Against a backdrop of intense intercity competition for these high-skilled migrants, many cities have introduced favourable policies ranging from offering subsidised housing to giving local hukous (Wang and Wu, 2019). Oftentimes, the development of high-tech industrial zones or science parks involves developing subsidised housing, sometimes known as talent housing, and a high-quality urban environment in order to attract high-skilled staff members (Geng et al, 2023; Zhu et al, 2023). The number of migrants deemed ‘high skilled’ has grown considerably over the years and statistics show that in 2010 around 14% (32 million) of the floating population are high-skilled migrants (Cui, 2020: 546).…”