Zone Fever, Project Fever: Development Policy, Economic Transition, and Urban Expansion in China

Abstract

With the pursuit for global competitiveness and economic growth, Chinese cities have recorded massive urban land expansion. This article examines the effects of development policies and economic restructuring on urban land expansion in China through a case study of Nanjing, representing the rapidly growing and globalizing coastal cities in China. Wei investigate the development process and changing contents of government policies, and analyze development zones and key projects as privileged, trait making, and even path‐breaking elements of the development process. We highlight the transition and paradox of the Chinese state in the urban development process, and the broad contexts underlying urban land expansion in Chinese cities. We see urban expansion in China as a process largely responding to top‐down policy change and economic transition initiated by the central government. We hold that the role of the state has to be analyzed to understand urban transformation and land expansion, moving beyond local factors of accessibility and feasibility. Development‐zone and project fevers, and lagging administrative reforms, however, have made Chinese cities heavy with debt and led to wasteful development, corruption, and social unrest in China.

The Making of a Sustainable Wireless City? Mapping Public Wi-Fi Access in Shanghai

“…This research traces the recent wireless city development in Shanghai using data gathered from both the government and the telecommunication providers and several interesting findings are uncovered. First, a substantial amount of public Wi-Fi facilities has been deployed and built up, shaping Wi-Fi geographies in Shanghai at multiple spatial scales [69], and a mix of market participants and governmental agencies has been involved in the process of wireless city development in Shanghai. Second, by mapping public Wi-Fi at both district and sub-district levels, we find that both local governments and major telecommunication companies, such as CMCC, have significantly contributed to the widespread Wi-Fi access to the Internet in Shanghai.…”

“…Second, Chinese cities are transitional cities. Local governments and market forces are collectively shaping the Wi-Fi geographies especially through the establishment of new development zones and towns in their suburban areas [69]. Hence, how to develop a mutually beneficial collaborative relationship between the government and market participants should be underscored in the future infrastructure planning.…”

Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Spatial Determinants of Urban Growth in Suzhou, China

“…In order to attract FDI to stimulate the local economy, almost every town planned its own industrial estate and preferential policies, one of which was low-cost land use. As a result, a development zone fever emerged in the late 1990s [14,[43][44][45].…”

“…Scholars have recently recognized socioeconomic factors as important driving forces for urban growth [14,34]. We selected four variables to reflect the influence of socioeconomic factors: distance to the city center, distance to district centers, distance to industrial center, and density of built-up area in the neighborhood of a 480 m radius from the central cell.…”

“…Scholars have managed to understand the driving forces of urban land expansion in China from institutional and political economy perspectives [10][11][12][13][14]. They find that urban growth in China is driven by economic reforms and globalization and led by the state and transnational corporations.…”