George C. S. Lin

Emerging Land Markets in Rural and Urban China: Policies and Practices

This article examines the evolution of Chinas land system in the past two decades. Since the early 1980s, China has altered its land use arrangements and introduced new regulations to manage land use changes. In the process the adminis- trative allocation of land to users has been transformed into a complex hierarchical system of primary and secondary markets for land use rights. The changes in Chinas land system were adopted primarily for two reasons: to develop land markets to allocate land more efficiently and to protect agricultural land. An analysis of available data suggests that the development of land markets is still at an early stage, that the conversion of land to non-agricultural use continues but at a slower pace, and that illegal land use is pervasive. The article concludes with an assessment of the new land system and a discussion of some likely future changes. In the past 20 years Chinas land system, the institutions and laws that define and regulate the relationships between land and its users, has undergone numerous and often significant changes. The process began in the early 1980s with the adoption of the household responsibility system that dramatically altered the relationship between Chinas farmers and the land they cultivated. Since then numerous other changes have been introduced, including the adoption of the Land Management Law in 1986 (subsequently revised in 1988 and 1998) and the commercialization of urban land use rights in the late 1980s. These changes and a growing concern about Chinas ability to allocate land efficiently and to reduce the wasteful use of scarce farmland in a period of rapid economic and social change have stimulated a host of new research on Chinas land policies and land use. Recent research has focused on three related issues: land use, property rights and land management. Research on land use has focused largely on the decline in cultivated area and has shown that, while much of the decline in farmland was caused by structural changes within agriculture, a significant cause of the loss was the conversion of farmland to non-agricultural use 1 Research on

The growth and structural change of Chinese cities: A contextual and geographic analysis

Abstract Recent theoretical attempts to understand the dynamics of urban change in North America have been made predominantly on the basis of either the “growth machine” model or urban regime analysis, both of which see the growth of cities as the result of the interplay among some internal urban-based actors for financial gains and fortune building. This study adopts an approach that moves beyond internalism and the growth deterministic interpretation of urban change, to analyzing the functional and spatial (re)positioning of cities as a system or systems in the broader context of regional growth and national development strategies. The city in China has functioned not simply as a body of assets and property but more as the center of economic and social transformation engineered by the state for both growth and non-growth considerations. Prior to the 1978 economic reforms, the system of cities created by the Maoist regime was dominated by large and extra-large cities because of the imperatives of optimum industrialization. For the strategic consideration of national defense, most of the new cities were developed in the central and western interior rather than the eastern coast. Market reforms and relaxation of state control over local development since the late 1970s have allowed a large number of small cities and towns to flourish on the basis of bottom-up rural transformative development. The intrusion of global market forces has helped re-consolidate the dominance of the eastern coast in China’s urban development. China’s urban development over the past five decades has been the direct outcome of national political strategizing, state articulation and reconfiguration, and shifts in global capital accumulation. A superimposed dual-track system of urban settlements integrating the Maoist legacy of large city dominance at the top with the rapidly expanding component of small cities and towns in the bottom is quickly taking shape to characterize China’s urban development and urbanization.

Evolving Spatial Form of Urban‐Rural Interaction in the Pearl River Delta, China

Much of the development literature and the theory of urban transition have been based on an arbitrary division of production space into city and countryside. Despite growing recognition of the need for an integrated approach to urban-rural relations, controversial issues related to the definition and measurement of the phenomenon remain unresolved. This case study of spatial transformation in Chinas Pearl River Delta analyzes with greater precision the geographic extent and functional attributes of a zone of urban-rural interaction located outside and between major metropolitan centers. This zone has been the spatial focus of industrial and commercial development, although most of its population remains officially classified as “agricultural.” The peri-urban zone was initially left behind by the central cities in terms of its contribution to the regional economy. After a decade of postreform development, this zone has moved ahead of the central cities and become the regions main destination for in-migrants and foreign investment. The growth of the zone of urban-rural interaction outside the central cities has absorbed a significant amount of the increased urban population, but it has not brought about a reduction of regional economic inequality because of the persistence of a backward economy in the periphery. Theoretical questions are raised concerning the validity of several fundamental assumptions underlying the conventional model of urban transition.

Industrial Clustering and Technological Innovation in China: New Evidence from the ICT Industry in Shenzhen

The relationship between industrial clustering and technological innovation has been a subject of intense enquiry and heated debate. We examine the actual pattern of industrial clustering and technological innovation in China, focusing on the information and communication technology (ICT) industry. With our systematic analysis of the data gathered at the national level we found no significant relationship between spatial agglomeration and economic performance. Our questionnaire survey and personal interviews conducted in Shenzhen—Chinas leading special economic zone—revealed a peculiar pattern consistent with that at the national level. Although there existed frequent and intensive production linkages among firms in the Shenzhen ICT industrial cluster, the innovative performance of these firms has been rather poor. Most of the ICT manufacturing firms obtained their core technology through internal research and development (R & D) activities rather than through technology transfer or knowledge spillover. There is a lack of interest among firms to seek cooperation and communication based on knowledge, technology, or R & D activities with other firms in the same cluster. The peculiar pattern of clustering and innovation in China suggests that technological innovation may have a divergent regional trajectory more sophisticated than that which has been described in the existing theory of industrial clusters. The study closes with a plea to go beyond a relational turn in economic geography and to take more seriously the roles played by actors and agents within different bounded and grounded institutional and regional contexts.

Strategizing urbanism in the era of neoliberalization: State power reshuffling, land development and municipal finance in urbanizing China

This paper examines the new dynamism of China’s urbanization in which urbanism has been actively pursued by municipal governments as a strategy to negotiate and contest with the new power relations established by the post-reform regime in the era of neoliberalization. The research identifies the salient features of urbanization and urban land development since the 1990s, probes into their social and political origins, and evaluates the effects of Chinese urban revolutions from above on economic growth, regional inequality and social volatility. The data analysed include those gathered from the national level and from the Guangzhou metropolis in southern China. The interwoven processes of state power reshuffling, urban land development and municipal finance in contemporary China are believed to have constituted a significant and controversial case for critical evaluation of the political origins of urban revolutions in the age of global urbanism and their uneven socioeconomic consequences.

Emerging spaces of neoliberal urbanism in China: Land commodification, municipal finance and local economic growth in prefecture-level cities

This study examines the popular practices of Chinese urbanism in which commodification of urban land has been actively pursued by municipal governments as a means of revenue generation in the era of neoliberalisation. The research identifies a complex, diverse and self-conflicting internal dynamics that characterised the Chinese state, reveals the political and financial motives of local governments to engage in urbanism and maps out the emerging geography of neoliberal urbanism. Land commodification has become a main source of municipal finance accounting for over 30% of total municipal budgetary revenue and nearly 40% of the fund for urban maintenance and construction. An inverse U-shaped relationship is found between the importance of land commodification to municipal finance and the level of urban economic growth. A similar relationship is identified for land-based municipal finance and degree of openness.

Hong Kong and the globalisation of the Chinese diaspora: a geographical perspective

This study examines the processes of spatial restructuring in the Hong Kong–South China region. The paper analyses urban-rural interaction in a historical and transnational context. Based on detailed census data collected in 1961 and 1996, this study traces the origins of the Hongkongers and maps out their spatial distribution according to their native place identities. The heightened population movement between the rural hinterland in the South China region and the Hong Kong metropolis is inseparable from territorial organisation on the Chinese mainland. The great spatial mobility demonstrated by the Hongkongers, or, their ‘refugee mentality’ as it is known, is found to be deeply rooted in their marginal sub-ethnic identity in the nation. A systematic analysis of spatial data reveals that the diasporic landscape developed in Hong Kong has been polarised by the elite English and Shanghainese speakers on the one end and the Kejia people on the other end. Despite the processes of globalisation, the great spatial mobility of the Hong Kong sojourners and the diasporic landscape they have created have been effectively shaped by their place-based ethno-linguistic identities. If the transnational movement of people is considered an important component of globalisation, then this study reinforces the importance of locality and contests the fashionable notion of globalisation as a ‘placeless’ phenomenon. The seemingly displaced empire of Chinese diaspora capitalism, in which Hong Kong has played a crucial part, has remained grounded by pre-existing place-specific conditions.

Getting the China Story Right: Insights from National Economic Censuses

Two Hong Kong-based geographers critically interrogate competing interpretations of the nature and dynamics of Chinas ongoing economic transformation. Based on the data gathered from Chinas first and second national economic censuses, they examine the pattern and process of ownership transformation in the Chinese economy, focusing on employment, capital assets, and output as well as productivity and industrial innovation. Emphasis is placed on the following critical issues: (1) after three decades of opening, Chinas national economy continues to be dominated by domestic enterprises (with foreign and overseas Chinese-invested enterprises limited to only a few industrial sectors and highly specific locales); (2) the bulk of capital assets and key large-scale industrial sectors remain in state ownership; and (3) spontaneous, bottom-up privatization of the labor market has occurred without a corresponding privatization of the capital market. In examining these and other issues, the authors argue that the evolving, complex China story can be better understood only after abandoning reliance on preconceived theoretical models derived primarily from Western experience. They support their case by first challenging the conventional neoliberal view of privatization as an independent force or predetermined condition, arguing instead that it is conditioned by prevailing social and political influences. Likewise, they posit that rapid expansion of private and individual businesses at the grassroots level has owed more to relaxed state control than to active state involvement envisioned by the thesis of state corporatism. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: E22, E23, E24, O11, P20. 8 figures, 6 tables, 87 references.

Interpreting China’s new urban spaces: state, market, and society in action

Chinese urbanism has long historical roots and has profoundly influenced world civilizations. Yet, the Chinese city has not, until very recently, attracted sustained or intense global attention. In the post-reform era, especially after 1992, the scale and speed of China’s urbanization, and the intricacy of its dynamics and socio-spatial consequences have dwarfed those of other countries in the world. The latest reform era of urban China is characterized by a renewed and thriving urbanism, which manifests itself in the sheer scale of new urban space (re)production and the intricate interrelationships among the state, market, and society. The proliferation of new urban spaces signifies the emergence of new mechanisms of space (re)production, which have led to the rise of a new urban spatial order (He & Wu, 2009; Kong, Chia-ho, & TsuLung, 2015; Lin, 2009; Ma & Wu, 2005; Wu, 2005, 2007). Here, new urban spaces refer to emerging physical/virtual, social, and cultural spaces that are situated at the confluence of China’s recent economic and political liberalization, globalization, and market transition. The term also denotes a general condition of rapid socio-spatial transformation signaling the latest episode of China’s urbanization. In this era of market transition, existing geographical research is dominated by the political economy approach, examining state and market interactions and offering a frame for interpreting the production of China’s new urban spaces (e.g., Lim, 2014; Lin, Li, Yang, & Hu, 2015; Peck & Zhang, 2013; Wu & Phelps, 2011; Wu, Xu, & Yeh, 2007; Zhang & Peck, 2014). Yet, studies at a more micro scale, studies that focus on sociospatial practices such as contentious actions regarding issues of social integration and on the public sphere under the overarching framework of state–society relations, have not been fully explored in geographical research (some exceptions include He & Xue, 2014; Kong et al., 2015; Liu, Li, & Breitung, 2012; Qian, 2014). As a result, existing studies of China’s urban geography have tended to neglect the social aspects of new urban spaces. As a matter of fact, the production of new urban spaces in contemporary China has profoundly influenced the urban socio-economy and is related to a complex constellation of social processes and social relations. In addition to the unbalanced research perspectives, from a methodological perspective empirical analyses and

Urban China through the lens of neoliberalism: Is a conceptual twist enough?:

Neoliberalism as a hegemonic global ideology and framework of governance has been the subject of extensive critical analyses in geography and urban studies. Despite the conceptual difficulties involved, a growing number of scholars have attempted to apply this critical discourse to China. In this commentary, we critically interrogate the urban China literature that deploys the neoliberal lens, mostly authored by scholars outside China, and we raise the fundamental question as to whether this discourse can ever capture the central stories or trajectories of China’s urban transformation. We examine the interpretations of China’s urban land property market, urban inequality and its spatial manifestation, and the emerging urban governmentality – the areas in which neoliberalism has been most often invoked – to highlight the utility and limitations of a neoliberal treatment of China. We argue that the neoliberal representation of China’s urban (re)development, with its preoccupation with capital and class interests, is unable to effectively capture the distinctive nature of entanglement of capital, state and society in China, and thus obscures the driving role and the competing rationalities of the authoritarian state, and the rapid reconfiguration of urban society. By citing examples of recent urban China research, we show that the neoliberalism framework, even in its ‘variegated’ or ‘assemblage’ versions, tends to trap China’s analysis within a frame of reference comfortable to Western researchers, and ultimately hinders the development of diversified, potentially more fruitful inquiries of the urban world.