Abstract
Xi Jinping’s overall development policies will have a large impact on China’s urban development. Ambitious reforms have now largely stalled out, leaving direct government action as the most important determinant of the changing urban form. High levels of investment have led to improved infrastructure and expanded housing, but also to a more homogeneous and less diverse urban landscape. Opportunities for rural migrants to integrate into urban life have also not improved as much as expected. Ambitious new city construction plans will reshape the Beijing, Shanghai, and Pearl River Delta regions over the next decades. These policies amount to a huge gamble on the effectiveness of government-led urban development.
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Notes
- 1.
The Presidency does not hold any real power in China, but is rather a ceremonial trapping that, since Jiang Zemin, has accompanied the actual power position of head of the Chinese Communist Party. However, the Presidency, like other government positions, had a formal two-term limit specified in the Constitution, while the Communist Party had only an easily changed norm of two five-year terms. By changing the legal limit on his government post, Xi cleared the way for the extension of his real power position as well.
- 2.
This calculation is based on the assumption that net fixed capital formation is the same share of infrastructure investment as it is of total fixed investment. See China Statistical Yearbook (2018), Tables 3-12 and 10-2.
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Naughton, B. (2020). Xi Jinping’s Economic Policy and Chinese Urbanization. In: Huang, Y. (eds) Chinese Cities in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34780-2_2
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