Weaving the Chinese Dream on the Ground? Local Government Approaches to “New-Typed” Rural Urbanization

• Published in: Chinese journal of political science 2015-06, Vol.20 (2), p.121-142
• Main Author: Ahlers, Anna L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: China; Land management; Land use; Local government; Neighborhoods; Political Science; Political Science and International Relations; Political Science and International Studies; Research Article; Rural areas; Urbanization
• ISSN: 1080-6954; 1874-6357
• DOI: 10.1007/s11366-015-9342-6

The Chinese urban dream is not a sudden one. Long before the “National Urbanization Plan” was issued in 2014, planning had been underway for a new type of state-engineered in situ urbanization of the Chinese hinterland. Replacing the previous system of macro scale urbanization in favor of a more balanced dissemination of urban infrastructure and a socially more acceptable concentration of resources and the population has been on the political agenda since the mid-2000s. The evolution of smaller-scale “new rural neighborhoods/communities” is particularly illustrative of this trend. However, the realization of China’s new urban dream depends on the way in which it is spun at local level. Emphasizing the enormous local variation of contemporary rural urbanization, this article introduces two counties’ comprehensive “new rural neighborhood” programs, their concepts for planning and steering the concentration and resettlement of village housing, including the related interim adjustments of household registration and land use management. The motivation and interests of local governments that shape plans for state-led rural urbanization were quite complex. Furthermore, it is argued that we can indeed find cases in which the ‘ new ’ notion of urbanization in China has encouraged a more comprehensive and sustainable system of localized developmental planning, not least because local governments are increasingly able to serve their own interests by designing functioning public goods and services provision schemes enwrapped in the “new-typed urbanization” dream – a logic that deserves close attention in the years to come.