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This paper examines how Chinese transnational investments, as (re)framed in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), contribute to changes in urbanisation processes in Southeast Asia. On the ground, the BRI becomes contextualised and intersects with local and national development trajectories. The growing presence of Chinese actors in the region intensifies urban dynamics, especially in secondary cities and emerging urban sites, where the BRI is used as a lever for local internationalisation strategies. The heterogeneous nature of the links between the BRI and various large urban projects is demonstrated on the basis of case studies involving changing consortia of private and public Chinese and Southeast Asian actors. A regional approach allows us to identify connections and shared processes across Southeast Asian countries. It provides a historically grounded understanding of how the BRI incorporates long‐term interactions with China and more recent partnerships in Southeast Asian countries. The paper paves the way for a research agenda that contests the image of China as a monolithic actor implementing the BRI uniformly and consistently. Further analyses are needed to examine systems and networks of actors as well as the local urban politics that affect the BRI on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Originated in southern China, nanyin (南音) is regarded as 'the sound of motherland' (乡音) performed and loved by the Hokkien dialect speakers in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and diasporic populations living in Southeast Asia. Having thrived in transnational spaces, nanyin is now celebrated as a shared heritage in China and Southeast Asian countries, such as Singapore. This paper explores the process of heritage‐making, that is, the ways in which the art form and cultural practice of nanyin have been re‐shaped and re‐appropriated by the diasporic communities and the native place to articulate different understandings of the Chinese identity in their distinct nation‐state frameworks. In this ambivalent entanglement, China has re‐appropriated the diasporic history of nanyin to gain international recognition and build soft power through United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In Singapore, the Siong Leng Music Association has actively engaged in the heritage‐making of nanyin, leading to the creation of a unique Singapore brand that speaks to hybridity and cosmopolitanism, in the same way as the re‐construction of their Chinese identity. Examining the two processes of heritagisation of nanyin along the China‐Singapore 'heritage corridors', the paper argues that the two ends are connected in important ways but always seek to maintain distance to articulate their own cultural representations at international stages. Thus, nanyin through a comparative perspective enables a critical examination of issues of centre versus periphery, authenticity, and hybridity in the Sinophone world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves into rural peasants' livelihood‐related agrarian changes revolving around their three major livelihood strategies in Qinghai. These strategies include peasant agriculture, seasonal migrant labour and caterpillar fungus harvesting, the latter two of which have been adopted since the mid‐1990s. The research particularly focuses on rural Tibetan peasants' lived experiences in their efforts to achieve sustainable livelihoods through these three strategies in a specific village context. In doing so, the paper highlights resources, qualifications, opportunities, changes and challenges in rural peasants' livelihood realities. The empirical evidence from this paper suggests that rural Tibetan peasants' diverse ways of making livelihoods have a greater potential to imagine and build sustainable and equitable livelihoods. I argue that sustainable livelihoods approaches must be pursued in tandem with a diverse economies framework for analysing rural peasants' present way of making livelihoods. This new and critical way of studying rural peasant livelihoods can particularly highlight non‐capitalist economic relations and practices that are the major contributors to sustainable and equitable livelihoods for Tibetan peasants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attracted wide scholarly attention. However, discussions among social scientists on BRI have largely premised on the academic infrastructure in English language contexts. Academic research on BRI in China has often been only briefly mentioned as background information in English language publications. This disjuncture between scholarship on BRI inside and outside China reflects the multiple geographies of BRI. Thinking through BRI in English and Chinese scholarship, this paper considers how existing and future factors such as funding sources, language politics, political framing of the research and institutional surveillance may yield different intellectual spaces for understanding the knowledge production of BRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using China Migrants Dynamic Survey Project data from 2012 to 2018, this paper evaluates the causal impact of equalisation of basic public health and medical services on the long‐term urban settlement intentions of internal migrants by the difference‐in‐differences approach. The results reveal that the equalisation of basic public health and medical services has a negative impact on the long‐term urban settlement intentions of internal migrants of 4%. Male, middle‐aged, and unmarried internal migrants have a much stronger negative response, in terms of long‐term urban settlement intentions, to changes in basic public health and medical services. Moreover, more recent internal migrants, those in first‐tier cities and those in cities in eastern regions also have a much stronger negative response. Mechanism checks imply that the negative impact on the long‐term urban settlement intentions of internal migrants is caused by social integration decline after implementation of equalisation of basic public health and medical services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While internal migration in contemporary China ascribes a great change to urban China's demographic composition, social structures and economic development trajectories, it is yet to restructure the formal definitions of urban identity and belonging, which are still dominated by the household registration system (hukou). The paper suggests that as a result of changes in the political, economic, demographic and social contexts within which China's internal migration develops, there emerge a crucial need to re‐examine the crude forms of determining identity and belonging, questioning the addressing of spatiality within the existing mechanisms (such as hukou system or the shiminhua discourse). To do so, the paper argues that the existing de‐territorialisation of the migration experience has to be replaced with a more nuanced understanding of how spatial practices and conceptualisations shape migrants' experiences, as it is becoming imperative to develop a new framework that is more sensitive to migrants' lived process of identification and belonging, especially as these traverse multiple geographies and spatial scales. This close engagement with migrants' spatiality can then be used as a base from which to engage with a more complex view of migrants' spatial and social relatedness, as well as the development of their urban belonging and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past several years, the creative reuse of brownfields has played a major role in Chinese cities to give their urban landscape a so-called second development. This paper analyses the governance of the brownfield restructuring in Guangzhou (Canton). The research is based on a study of the T.I.T Creative Industry Zone, a highly successful creative space currently in danger of demolition. This paper follows DiGaetano and Strom's () analytical governance framework. This approach allows for deciphering the complexities of decision-making through a well-structured set of interdependent categories. In Guangzhou, new policies and institutions have been promoting the restructuring and have contributed to the formalisation of public-private interactions. In general, this indicates a shift towards a more corporatist governance. However, the study of T.I.T reveals a rather intricate picture: the policymaking remains influenced by a top-down authoritative style - sometimes in an arbitrary manner - and to some extent also by particularistic exchanges. This indicates a complex mode of urban governance consisting of increasingly corporatist elements but still with managerial, and to a lesser extent, clientelistic elements. Finally, the coexistence of different governance modes seems to be a typical outcome of China's transition while still remaining more adaptive, experimental and flexible in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of the individual is one of the most profound and significant evolutions of Chinese society that has accompanied economic reforms since the late 1970s. Existing research frequently uses a dual concept of 'individualist' versus 'collectivist' societies to approach the lives of urban Chinese. In the case of same‐sex attracted persons, as they often hide their sexual orientation in most of their social life and must respect social norms of filial piety and marriage, it is easy to conclude that today's urban China continues to be primarily a 'collectivist' society where the individual remains fragile. Using a long‐term ethnography of same‐sex attracted migrant men who gather in a public park to create a community of friends and invent some shared cultural and social traits, this paper proposes to deepen the analysis by borrowing the distinction between three different attitudes towards individualism developed by Michel Foucault. It will argue that these men actively construct specific spaces where they can live a private life, as well as experiment and explore their self. Therefore, these men display a more complex articulation between some aspects of a 'collectivist' ethos and the strengthening of individual traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper centres on analysing how return migrants' participation in online businesses impacts marital power dynamics in rural families alongside the rise of e‐commerce in rural China. During 2016 and 2017, I conducted an ethnographic study in a Chinese 'Taobao village' which I have termed 'Xinyi' whereby the majority of villagers make their livelihoods by selling furniture via the online marketplace Taobao. The boom of e‐commerce has attracted many migrants to return to the village and start their online businesses. Inquiring into whether and how rural women's increased access to online entrepreneurship challenges the gender norm that upholds male dominance in marriage, I delineate the power relations in 'Taobao families' within which rural women jointly operate online shops with their husbands. Drawing from my ethnographic data, I propose a conceptual framework incorporating the lenses of returnee entrepreneurship, flexible inner‐outer boundary and performance of gender to examine discrepancies between the gender norm that upholds gender hierarchy, and the practice regarding the husbands and wives' equal engagements in online merchandising. This framework is developed to shed a more positive light on the nuances of women's exercise of agency that entails nominal conformity to the gender norm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hundreds of hydropower dam projects, of all sizes, have been initiated in Yunnan Province, China, since the late 1990s. This paper frames hydropower‐driven resource reallocations as resource grabs that combine aspects of land, water and green‐grabbing, investigating how two dams built along the Red River have impacted local communities and how corporate and governmental stakeholders have viewed local livelihood changes and considered compensation mechanisms. This research documents how hydropower expansion triggers changes in both land and water availability, in turn depriving riverside communities of a wide range of intersecting livelihood benefits. Villagers were compensated for some losses, but in ways that failed to address how impacts accumulated over time and how hydrologic changes would impact overall livelihood activities. Financial compensation and specific environmental and modernisation agendas legitimised resource reallocations together with the provincial, national and global development campaigns driving them. Considering how different actors experience, frame and address the impacts of hydropower development through a resource‐grabbing lens elucidates the compartmentalised approaches of distant hydropower actors as well as scholars. This study answers recent calls to mobilise the scholarship on resource‐grabbing in the service of shedding light on the socio‐political projects driving resource reallocations and their livelihood impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the social geography of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in China, focusing on the spread of HIV/AIDS, and the extent to which migration and urbanisation might be contributing to both the spread and the increasing prevalence of these diseases. The paper begins with a discussion of the early years of the epidemic (beginning in the mid-1980s), when the consensus view was that STDs and HIV were geographically marginal phenomena, occurring either on China's periphery, or in isolated parts of its rural interior. This characterisation seemed to be less appropriate in the latter part of the 1990s, when it became clear that temporary and circular migration had the potential to spread the diseases from one part of the country to another. The second part of the paper examines the connection between migration and the prevalence of STDs and HIV, reporting on some of the empirical evidence to support such a hypothesis, and speculating on the theoretical underpinnings of the migration/STD relationship. The third part of the paper considers what might lie in store for China in terms of its HIV epidemic. One distinct possibility is the spread of HIV to China's booming cities, and to explore this possibility in theoretical terms, a number of interrelated aspects of urbanisation that might be associated with higher rates of HIV-related risky behaviours are considered. It is suggested that these overlapping sets of forces could be related to the emergence of new behaviours and lifestyles that may be putting a growing number of Chinese people at risk in the new millennium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the intersection of state policies and local interests in allocating and managing resources in mountainous border areas of China and Thailand. These two states differ markedly in policies and approaches both to forests and to ethnic minorities on the periphery. The first section of the paper traces the history of policies in both countries for forested border areas and for forest-dependent ethnic minorities. The next section explores the evolution of property rights, land use, and the meaning of resources for one Akha village in China, and one in Thailand, in response to these dramatically different political economies. The final section considers some current outcomes for both the Akha and the local landscape as a result of these differing policy histories, and Akha strategies for claiming and using resources under these two regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Planned resettlement is being widely considered as a response to the impacts of climate change. As many millions of people are expected to be displaced in the coming decades, scholars and policymakers are searching for precedence to inform their research and planning, particularly from experiences of Development‐Induced Displacement and Resettlement (DIDR). Nowhere in the world is DIDR and other closely related forms of planned resettlement more prevalent than in China: an estimated 78 million people have been displaced by development projects over the last six decades. While planned resettlement has consistently been shown to cause impoverishment, the Chinese state views it as the answer to a multitude of social ills including poverty, environmental damage, low levels of domestic consumption, and most recently, climate change, providing impetus to the normalisation of resettlement as adaptation. This paper examines the prospects for just outcomes in resettlement projects by examining distributive justice at multiple scales in existing resettlement practice in China. It finds that due to the interplay between resettlement and questions of procedural justice, prospects for just outcomes are quite limited, and that in order to achieve fair adaptation, alternatives to planned resettlement should be emphasised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Back-door' migration refers to the entry of overseas-born New Zealand citizens to Australia. Many New Zealand Chinese migrants from the People's Republic of China ( PRC) are within this migration flow. Based on a detailed analysis on the permanent and long-term arrival and departure data from Statistics New Zealand and an online survey conducted by the author, this paper examines the trans- Tasman migration of New Zealand's PRC migrants. The result shows that compared with New Zealand-born citizens, the trans- Tasman migration of China-born New Zealand citizens is not large in number. The 2001 Australia immigration policy change of the welfare provisions to New Zealand citizens discouraged 'back-door' migration of the PRC migrants in the short term only. Australia still remains a favoured destination for many of them. Economic consideration is the main factor drawing these migrants to Australia. This paper also reveals a circulatory feature of the PRC migrants' trans- Tasman migratory movements, as evidenced by a significant number of respondents who had migrated from New Zealand to Australia indicating that they would come back to New Zealand at some future time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its rubber-stamp image, the involvement of China’s unicameral legislature (People’s Congress, PC) in the country’s environmental governance has become more visible in recent years. Using an environmental dispute taking place in the county-city of Sihui, Guangdong Province as a case study, this paper examines how the congress deputies at the provincial level were involved in the domestic environmental controversy, which comprised a landmark congressional inquiry into the provincial environmental authorities. Through dissecting the practice and behaviour of the Guangdong Provincial PC and its deputies in relation to the environmental dispute settlement, the paper recognises the inquiry as an achievement test, and unravels the political and institutional roots of China’s environmental governance from a congressional perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: With the emergence of the real estate market since 1990, the operation Beijing's economy has led to a re-shaping of its inner city. By reviewing the Old and Dilapidated Housing Redevelopment (ODHR) programme in Beijing in the 1990s, this paper seeks to uncover the forces that led to the prevailing large-scale urban redevelopment which induced serious environmental and socio-economic problems. By analysing conflicts between major stakeholders of the ODHR programme, the paper finds that the root cause of these problems was embedded in the ‘mismatch of plan and market’ by which local officials and local developers utilised their privileges inherited from a planned economy to benefit from the emerging real estate markets. As a result, the hidden agenda of local elites was facilitated during the urban redevelopment process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large floating population is moving around in China. This is a challenging demographic, social and economic issue for the country. But the knowledge about this particular population group remains incomplete and fragmentary. This paper uses a recent set of statistical data covering a registered temporary population of 37 million to assess the status of the floating population in China. It is found that the majority of the registered floating population is employed or self–employed in one way or another. But the housing conditions of the rural migrants are generally poor. Institutional and market forces are playing an important role in shaping the working and living space of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving national average income and reducing regional income inequality often serve as dual goals of economic development in a country. After over twenty years of economic reforms, China has been fairly successful in achieving the first goal, but failed in the second. This paper uses recent data with a sharper resolution to examine the variation of average wages across Chinese cities 1989–1997. Widening wage inequalities across cities are observed during the period. This research also seeks to explain the variation of wages between cities by factors such as agglomeration (density and city size), location advantages (distances from central cities and from the coastline), educational attainment, industrial structure and administrative hierarchy. Many of the factors are found to be important in explaining wage differences in Western countries but are yet to be tested in China. Some factors such as distance from the coast, industrial structure and administrative hierarchy are considered because of China’s unique social and economic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores China’s in situ urbanisation and its implications for the paradigm of extended metropolitan areas. Based on preliminary results of the 2000 census, field surveys and interviews, government statistics and documents, and direct observation in Fujian Province of China, a region without much influence of mega-cities, the analysis shows that in situ urbanisation resulting from the transformation of rural settlements has played an important role since the 1980s. The paper examines major factors contributing to the process of in situ urbanisation, especially the development of township and village enterprises, government policies and foreign investment. Some underlying conditions, such as local historical and geographical conditions and cultural characteristics, high population density and improvement in transport and communications, are also discussed, and the future prospect of the urbanisation pattern in the context of local economic restructuring and urbanisation strategies in the new century is gauged. The paper also assesses the relevance of the paradigm of extended metropolitan areas to the urbanisation pattern, and suggests the need for a conceptual framework focusing on the urbanisation process resulting from bottom-up rural developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes issue with the desakota model developed by Terry McGee by elucidating the illegal land use and construction in the rural–urban transition zone in China, with the additional case study of Tianhe Village in Guangzhou City. The paper emphasises the need to examine the geography of illegal activities along the approach of geographies of difference. It has shown that illegal land use and construction is prevalent in rural China. In rural areas where cultivated land has been converted to non-agricultural purposes, peasants are left with no alternative but to use land and construct buildings illegally. Some have increased their income by leasing out flats to migrant workers, whereas others have not been able to do this. This study has revealed that underneath the positive and integrative picture portrayed by the desakota model is its negative and disintegrative counterpart. Illegal land use and construction is one such example. Unless we incorporate both into our studies, we will not be able to comprehend the urban morphology of Chinese city regions in the new millennium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past three decades, we have seen a flourishing of scholarship which explores the emerging political spaces and variegated scales of governance in China. This research draws on political economic tradition to argue that the way in which cities and regions are governed is indeed infused with socio-political struggles which are proliferating at a range of spatial scales. Such theoretical interpretation is illuminating, but it has been subject to increasing criticism from the poststructuralist approach that views scale as an epistemological construct. This paper uses the Pearl River Delta Intercity Railway System (PRD-ICRS) as a case study to challenge the onesidedness of both the political economy tradition and the poststructuralist approach in reading scale. It employs the 'scale politics' thesis to argue that scale is more than a material existence (or institutionalised structure) that represents a particular arrangement of political power, being subject to perpetual transformation through regulatory projects and strategies. It is also a 'representation trope' deployed in political discourses to acquire persuasive power to frame and legitimise these projects and strategies. Scale is thus both material and discursive. Understanding the two moments of scale enables a fuller dissection of political transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's total floating population exceeded 245 million at the end of 2013 and is the largest mobile population in the world. This paper explores the spatial distribution pattern and change characteristics of the net floating population at county scale from 2000 to 2010 using census data. The results show the following: (1) the net floating population increased by 120 million over 10 years, and the mobility of the population had enhanced in this period; (2) the floating population migrated to the three economic zones and provincial capital cities, while the traditional agricultural regions with dense populations experienced continuous outflow of population (which altered spatial agglomeration patterns); (3) eastern China has a high level of natural environment suitability and was a major destination area, but more pressures were placed on the carrying capacity of big cities; and (4) western China, with a relatively weak carrying capacity for resources and environment, was a net outflow region in 2010 - although five provinces had small-scale net inflow because of western-style development strategies. This study is offered as a contribution to understanding the features of China's floating population and will be useful for those shaping policies that guide population migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important contemporary driver of livelihood change in coastal Southeast Asia is the growing demand for luxury seafood in China. Based on fieldwork in the municipality of Balabac in Palawan province, western Philippines, this paper takes stock of this trend, and investigates the implications of the relationship between Chinese patterns of luxury seafood consumption and the intensification of coastal livelihoods in Southeast Asia. The paper focuses mostly on the trade in live reef fish, with reference also to sea cucumber and shark fin. In the light of recent discussions of social and environmental change in Southeast Asia, the paper addresses how the intensification of coastal livelihoods has manifested in important trends, including an increasing reliance on high-value commodity fisheries such as the trade in luxury seafood. Important consequences of this intensification of coastal livelihoods include environmental degradation, and social change due to the development of broader trading networks. The paper argues that the live reef fish for food trade is an important contemporary livelihood that highlights the ways in which Chinese consumption is having diverse social and environmental consequences for source countries in Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoliberalism has become dominant in both thought and practice throughout much of the world since the early 1970s. In China, neoliberal ideas are growing fast, even as it festers and stagnates in capitalist economies. To capture this process, many scholars have extensively studied market politics in China, demonstrating how state functions are rearticulated downwards and outwards to allow local discretion and market formation. The result is a burly wave of urban entrepreneurialism, which becomes a key municipal strategy to enhance place-specific, socio-economic assets. However, such arguments neglect a counter-trend in which the state has deterritorialised and recentralised some key functions. This paper draws on two cases in urban land administration and state planning regulation to argue that state functions are being reassembled as a new post-crisis political instrument to reassert the functional importance of top-down regulatory control. Economic decentralization is now counterbalanced by the rise of state strategies to control the articulation of scales through which a more centrally consolidated power can be achieved. Rather than viewing markets as taking over the state and local territorial discretion overshadowing hierarchical administration, the paper emphasises the important role of state and top-down regulation in the current post-crisis context under transition. 摘要 自上世纪七十年代起，新自由主义成为了领导世界的主流思想及实践方向。市场革命极大地影响了发达国家与发展中国家现行的资本累积体制。尽管新自由思想思潮在资本主义经济体系的作用愈见滞后，但却在中国发展壮大。 有鉴于此，国内外学者开展了有关中国市场机制的研究，并认为下放经济管理权与政府职能直接导致了地方权力的扩张和市场的发育。结果就是城市企业主义的出现，并广泛成为城市政府强化地方社会经济优势的主要策略。然而，该种阐述忽略了一个重要的逆反现象，就是国家的管理体制也同时在经历'去地域化'、重建上级政府治理的过程。本文以城市土地管理与政府规划管理为例，来说明通过适当收权重建国家治理能力正成为一种新的管治工具。与权力下放不同，这种逆向趋势加强了上级政府的处理层级关系的能力。本文的主要论点为：市场并未取代政府，权力下放也并不代表'条条'管理的消失。在转型期的后经济危机时代，政府的作用与至上而下式的治理模式依然十分重要。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The path towards a closer integration in Advanced Producer Services (APS) industries between Hong Kong and Shenzhen has been difficult despite favorable locational factors. Based on the authors' long-term and extensive working experience in the APS sectors in the Pearl River Delta, combined with in-depth interviews with senior officers of companies who are APS providers in Hong Kong in 2009, this paper will examine the factors, both tangible and intangible as in institutional and non-institutional, regulatory and non-regulatory, as well as legal, governmental, social and cultural, which affect and resist APS integration between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. The findings suggest that the integration of APS between Hong Kong and Shenzhen has been greatly impeded by unfavourable institutional factors that have overwhelmed locational advantages. There are substantial inhibitions against free competition in the China marketplace including non-regulatory and intangible inhibitions, embodied by local protectionism, heavy reliance on guanxi, rampant insider games and nepotism, excessive bureaucracy, an inadequate legal system, pervasive rent seeking and so forth that block integration between the two cities. The paper will also examine the Qianhai Free Trade Service Zone, the ambitious initiative made by the Shenzhen government to promote APS cooperation between the two areas. 摘要 提升香港、深圳两地现代服务业（高端生产性服务业）的融合，受两地政府、学者、及商业团体热烈支持。两地地域的接近，经济互补性，及人民的紧密联系，都鼓励经济融合。然而地域优势不能令所有经济活动相同受益，而两地边界对不同人及行业的阻碍，分别很大。根据作者在珠三角的工作经验及在二零零九年在香港对业内资深行政人员所作的访问，此论文探讨影响两地高端服务业融合的各方面因素，包括制度、惯例、法规、法制、政府管治、社会及文化等。调查指出内地不利的制度及惯例因素全面压倒地域的优势，严重阻碍市场竞争及两地高端服务业的融合，特别是非监管和无形的限制，地方保护主义，严重依赖关系，猖獗的内幕交易和裙带关系，过度的官僚主义，缺乏适当的法律制度及明晰的监管规章，选择性执法的法律，缺乏非市场机制，普遍的利润垄断等，完全阻隔两地经济结合，其不利影响，极之深邃。本文还对深圳政府在前海设立自由贸易服务区以推动两地高端服务业的合作，作出探讨。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a long time, China has been focusing primarily on pursuing economic growth, with less concern about social and environmental development issues. This may make China's development unsustainable. In contrast to its current economic-oriented approach predominated by economic growth, this research note presents a newly proposed approach of 'major function-oriented zone' (MFOZ) that is designed by our research team and is largely accepted by the central government and incorporated into its 12th Five-Year Plan. This approach tries to rationalise China's regional development and insists that each region should have its unique functions to perform, determined by its own characteristics, conditions and requirements. With this approach, the central government is able to monitor and coordinate regional and local developments, and hence the 'Planning of MFOZ' is seen by the central government as a tool to steer spatial arrangements for the country's long-turn sustainable development. 摘要 长期以来，中国各地都着力于追求快速经济增长，较少关注社会发展和生态保护等问题，这种发展模式是不可持续的。本研究团队提出按照功能区进行国土空间组织，即不同地区应分别承担人口和工业化集聚、粮食安全保障、生态屏障建设等不同功能，实施差异化的发展模式。政策建议得到中央政府认可，主体功能区在'十二五'规划中上升为区域发展战略。本文在介绍主体功能区形成背景和研究框架基础上，对该团队在过去5年中所开展的研究工作进行阐释。包括发展类和保护类主体功能区分类、地域功能识别指标体系构成和内涵、采用单项指标评价和综合指标评价国土空间功能适宜性的缘由及结果、空间综合分析方法和主体功能区草案的研制等。最后简析主体功能区规划和战略实施的制度障碍，提出开展对主体功能区实施情况动态监测和评估的新研究命题。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spectacular growth of Chinese cities since the 1980s is often theorised as reflecting the advantages of latecomer development (ALD). ALD has been more effective in cosmopolitan, globally accessible coastal cities than outer cities. As leading cities, like Shanghai, close the development gap, the potential for 'easy' ALD growth falls off rapidly. Because institution building is more difficult than firm-based growth, ALD strategies may generate rapid short-term economic growth but not sustainable development. Accordingly, Chongqing municipality, with a population of 33 million, in West China, is pursuing a beyond latecomer advantage model. This is characterised by: (i) reducing poverty and rural-urban disparity through accelerated urbanisation, rural-urban integration and emphasising human resource development; (ii) upgrading the value added of Chongqing's economy through targeting of FDI and incentives to local start-ups; (iii) endogenous development, reducing risks from external shocks; (iv) Hukou reform; (v) establishing a land use conversion certificate market to rationalise land use; (vi) emphasis on morality to address crime/corruption; (vii) recognition of the importance of amenity in attracting investment and talent; and (viii) establishing a longer developmental time perspective. This paper explores this Chongqing model in detail. 摘要 中国自20世纪80年代以来所取得的辉煌经济增长，在很大程度上是基于其引进外资和利用后发优势来实现的。而后发优势的推进，在国际化大都市和那些拥有全球通达性的沿海城市会更为有效。作为先锋性城市，如上海等，随着与全球城市发展的差距日益缩小，'易于'实现后发优势的潜力就会迅速消失，这是因为制度建设要比以企业为基础的经济增长更难推进，因此后发优势或许能带来快速的短期经济增长，但并不能带来当然的可持续发展。有鉴于此，重庆市，这座拥有3300万人口的中国西部城市，正在寻找一条'超越后发优势'的发展道路。这一模式目前正在成长中，表现出如下特征：（1）通过加快城市化进程、城乡融合发展和强调人力资本开发，减少贫困和城乡差别；（2）通过引进外资和刺激本地企业创业，提升重庆市的经济附加值；（3）通过内生性发展，减少外部动荡所引起的风险；（4）通过农村集体土地资产的创新性盘活，有效地进行户籍改革；（5）通过建立土地市场的流转证制度，优化城乡土地的利用效率；（6）通过强调道德建设和反腐倡廉以及强有力的打击犯罪，提升全体市民的向心力和士气；（7）通过强调环境质量在吸引投资和人才方面的重要作用，加快外向型和宜居型城市的发展步伐；（8）通过建立公务员服务质量评价体系，倡导长期发展观，以推进经济社会发展的持续平衡性。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an analysis of the economic relationship between the two most important economies in Asia. Over the last decades, the Chinese and Japanese economies have become more economically interdependent, a development which will, in the long run, impact the countries' political relationship. The paper seeks to answer the question: How can China and Japan gain from the current economic situation, further enhance their relationship and increase their synergies for regional economic development? Data on trade and Foreign Direct Investment are used in combination with primary data from interviews with Japanese and Chinese companies on how they perceive the current business situation and future potential. The result of the data analysis shows that the countries have much to gain from their economic interdependence. The firms see great potential in their respective markets but are concerned about political turbulence. Three possible scenarios for the future economic relationship are presented, including fierce competition on all markets and a leveraging of resources for mutual development between Chinese and Japanese companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase of global integration, the peri-urban area (PUA) of megacities in Asia has become a favourite destination for foreign direct investment (FDI). This paper uses the PUA of Shanghai as a case study to investigate the impact of global forces on the urban expansion of the city, and the link between urban growth and sustainable development in this mega-urban context. Shanghai has grown impressively during the past two decades in terms of economic and physical transformation. Much of this transformation has rested on the unbridled exploitation of land and other environmental resources in its peri-urban area. This is characterised by the designation of development zones and the concentration of manufacturing FDI, resulting in dispersed growth and environmental degradation. The disruption of the physical environment, combined with the concentration of the urban poor in these areas (in particular ‘temporary migrants’), has turned the PUA into a potential crisis point threatening the social and economic development of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper canvasses the port development of the Yangtze River Delta. Initially, we consider changes in container trade in the region since the 1990s. Competition between the ports of Ningbo and Shanghai are studied by measuring the overlapping hinterland of container distribution for Zhejiang province. We then analyse the strategies pursued by international carriers and terminal operators to secure success in this increasingly competitive environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Container ports located in a delta of navigable waterways generally strive to develop the inland river services as a competitive transport mode, with a view to serving local and distant hinterland regions. The spatial and functional development of river-based container networks is location-specific and time-specific. While each barging network and associated seaport system has its own dynamics, similarities in development patterns cannot be excluded. This paper discusses similarities and dissimilarities between the spatial and the functional development of the container river service networks of the Yangtze River and the Rhine River. It is shown that the Yangtze service network has the tendency to converge, in more than one aspect, with the (historical) development pattern of inland container services in the Rhine basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the new urban poverty in China since the deepening of market-oriented reform in the 1990s and argues that the institutional process goes beyond recent market-oriented reforms. Poverty generation is driven by broad economic restructuring and transformation of welfare provision. De-industrialisation and decline in state-owned enterprises have generated a significant number of laid-off workers, forming the new urban poor who are simultaneously confronted with the transformation of welfare provision. The loss of workplace-based entitlement is a direct cause of their poverty or exacerbates their underprivileged conditions. For at least a significant proportion of new urban poor without the hope of returning to the mainstream labour market, the minimum living standard support programme in fact captures them at the edge of survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, dramatically increasing numbers of mainland Chinese women have entered Hong Kong to engage in sexual labour. Public discourses on the threat of HIV/AIDS increasingly locate these women's bodies as sites of danger, colluding with pre-existing imaginations of mainland rural women as ignorant, desperate and deceptive in representing these women's penetration of Hong Kong's border as a primary means of infection of the Hong Kong body. Drawing on state, media and popular representations, and the narratives of female sex workers themselves, this paper examines the interwoven bio-medical, gendered, sexual and cross-border relationships that intersect in the experiences of mainland Chinese sex workers in Hong Kong. I argue that while images of disease and danger have been used to regulate these women's bodies, mainland female sex workers challenge these images by drawing on other popular stereotypes of mainland women as pure, feminine and traditional. Although images of the related but still‘other’ figure of the mainland Chinese woman are powerful mechanisms for the regulation of these women's bodies, mainland female sex workers skilfully use inherent tensions in those images in resisting that control and in struggling to achieve their own personal and economic goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an evaluation of current arrangements made for compensation and resettlement to farmers who will be displaced by the construction of the Three Gorges Project (TGP) on the Yangtze River. Kaixian County is used as a case study. Under present regulations the specific value of peri–urban land is underestimated, neither cash–in–hand arrangements nor land–for–land swaps are adequate. There are other problems. The availability of suitable land for resettlement is scarce and rarely of equivalent quality. The inflexibility of the ‘household responsibility system’ contributes to the problem. It is suggested that some of those facing displacement should be encouraged to accept resettlement in places at considerable distance from their current homes and that a more creative approach should be taken to the issue of compensation to enable people to develop their trade and business skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the emergence in China from the 1890s onwards of several distinct but interrelated interpretations of citizen and citizenship. It shows how these differing interpretations have drawn on a variety of political influences and traditions, some relating to the cultural and political worldview of late Qing and early Republican China, and some absorbed from Europe and Japan. It notes that they have acquired renewed potential during the last two decades or so, as elite groups in the Chinese People’s Republic attempt to construct new approaches to the state and society in the wake of the collapse of Maoist socialism and under the influence of market–orientated economic reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 élite 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to increased life expectancies and falling fertility, China will have not only the largest aged population but also the most rapid ageing process in the foreseeable future. The need to provide adequate and affordable support and care for the elderly has recently caused both scholars and policymakers concern. By analysing a 1992 sample of the aged in 12 provinces, this paper examines the support and care received by the elderly, focusing on living arrangements, economic security (income sources and levels), physical care, access to health services and emotional support. In the early 1990s old-age support in China was mainly provided by families, primarily through co-residence. The coverage of government-sponsored pension programmes was limited largely to city dwellers. Economically, physically and emotionally, most old people were well cared for, although the rural old and women were relatively disadvantaged. Rural elderly were more likely to still be engaged in productive activities, while old women were more likely than old men to be financially dependent on their children. Women played an important role as care-givers at home. However, the current familial system is under increasing pressure as the country's social and economic structure changes drastically. To meet the mounting challenge of the future, early and comprehensive strategies are needed to establish an old-age support system that brings into full play the state, local communities and individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xishuangbanna, which is well known for its ethnic diversity, is located in the upper reaches of the Mekong River. Dai lowlanders make up one third of the total population, 13 other indigenous highland groups make up another third and the balance are Han Chinese. The research on which this paper is based was conducted in three villages, Dai, Hani and Jinuo communities and designed to explore the changing relationships between lowlanders and highlanders. It was found that over the past five decades two critical events triggered profound changes. One was liberation by the Chinese Communist Party in 1950, and the other the land and economic reform policies introduced at the beginning of the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the economic reforms launched at the end of the 1970s, China has experienced dramatic socioeconomic change which has led to the emergence of new and distinctive regions of economic interaction characterised by an extensive and intensive mix of agricultural and non-agricultural activities. This paper illustrates the nature and characteristics of these evolving Extended Metropolitan Regions (EMRs) by drawing on the experience of the Shenyang-Dalian urban corridor in Northeast China (Manchuria). The increased level of economic interaction between the cities and the countryside is characterised by accelerated labour and capital flows, rapidly expanding rural-urban commodity trade and subcontracting between urban and rural enterprises. The result is a rapid erosion of differences in the standard of living, economic function and life style between the city and the countryside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no consistent conclusion on the impact of improving the physical accessibility of medical facilities/resources on the utilisation of medical facilities and health outcomes, which may be due to neglecting the role of spatial cognition of physical facilities, which will be directly related to health behaviour and outcomes. This article uses China Migrants Dynamic Survey to examine the relationship between perceived accessibility of medical facilities and health and health behaviour. The results show that perceived accessibility is positively associated with health and related behaviour. The higher the perceived accessibility to the medical facilities, the better the subjective and objective health status of migrant residents. Similarly, the more positive the preventive and healthcare‐seeking behaviour is. This study suggests that public policymakers need to intervene in residents' spatial cognition of medical resources around their neighbourhoods to enhance the collective benefits of medical facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As frame for the set that follows, this article first considers the range of theoretical interpretations of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Our focus, however, is on a related yet distinct set of questions. Rather than theorising BRI per se, we approach BRI as a source of theoretical implications and reflection – asking what it signals and implies for wider cultural, economic, political, social and urban theories, and for histories of and afterlives of imperial geopolitics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the interactions between subnational governments in influencing the Chinese national state in economic and spatial planning by focusing on two cases in south China, namely the pursuit of a new reform and development plan by Guangdong province in 2008 and Hong Kong's effort to position itself in China's 12th Five-Year Plan (FYP). The intergovernmental dynamics inside the Greater Pearl River Delta (PRD) can be interpreted as the policy advocacy and coordination of entrepreneurial local states in a fragmented, authoritarian polity. Guangdong province actively pursued central approval of the PRD's regional plan because central support is critical not only for approving specific projects but also for steering its development direction and providing a policy tool to impose coordination plans in order to achieve better regional coordination and resource allocation inside the Delta. The province has skilfully leveraged on Hong Kong to get central approval and delegation of power over pilot measures regarding Guangdong-Hong Kong economic cooperation. Similarly, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government's efforts to secure a privileged position for Hong Kong in the 12th FYP can be considered as a competitive positioning strategy in view of growing competition within the PRD and from other regions. 摘要 本文研究大珠三角地方政府间互动及中央政府在经济和空间规划的影响，并集中分析华南地区的两个案例--广东省政府于2008-2009年间提出改革和发展规划，以及香港争取中央政府在'国民经济和社会发展第十二个五年规划纲要'对其作出重要定位。大珠三角地方政府间的互动，可以被解读为在分割的权威体制下，具有企业型行为模式的地方政府对政策的推动和协调。广东省主动寻求中央政府批准珠三角发展和改革规划纲要，并非只为争取它对几个特定政策的支持。更重要的是，广东省政府旨在利用中央的支持推动本省所订立的政策和发展方向。中央支持更成为省政府的政策工具，使其能对珠三角内部的规划进行协调部署，从而实现更佳的区域合作与资源配置。广东省策略性地与香港联手争取中央支持，推动粤港经济合作的先行先试措施以及向省政府下放权力。同样地，香港特别行政区政府亦争取中央政府在第十二个五年规划中，对香港作出有利的定位。这可被视为香港在珠三角内外竞争不断加剧的环境中, 所采取的一种策略性行动。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of cities as geographical units, intercity cooperation has been increasing worldwide. Benefits of regional city-to-city (C2C) cooperation can be seen in the political added value and added value of urban competitiveness. This paper focuses on the Jiangyin-Jingjiang Industrial Park in the Yangtze River Delta region as a case study to explore these benefits in regional C2C cooperation in China's local context. It is found that political added value is more effective and efficient in accelerating strategy formulation and partner selection within regional C2C cooperation. The added value of urban competitiveness is more crucial in regional C2C partnership maintenance serving as an internal driving force for sustainable C2C cooperation. In addition, intervention from the provincial government tends to consolidate the impact of urban competitiveness in regional C2C cooperation. The empirical study also sheds light on the dynamics of China's economic decentralisation, political centralisation and the market logic interwoven with state authority. 摘要 随着城市作为地理单元的崛起，城市间的合作正在全球范围内不断涌现。通过引入城市竞争力的视角，本文将区域城市间合作（Regional City-to-city cooperation）所带来的收益划分为政治附加值和城市竞争力附加值，并以长江三角洲地区江苏江阴-靖江工业园区为案例着重审视和探讨了中国本土语境下区域城市间合作的激励机制。本研究发现对于推动区域城市间合作战略的形成和伙伴城市的选择，政治附加值更加有效；而对于区域城市间合作关系的维系，城市竞争力附加值则更为关键。因此，城市竞争力附加值是可持续的城市间合作的内在推动力。本文的实证研究折射出转型期中国的经济分权与政治集中，以及市场逻辑与国家权利逻辑的相互交织。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although economically interdependent, political rivalry between Japan and China have brought about the inability of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus Three (APT) process to transform itself into an East Asia Summit (EAS) as originally envisioned. The existence of the APT and the EAS as two separate entities not only reflected the politico-security rivalry between the two neighbours but more importantly affected the direction and progress of East Asian regionalism as a whole. Aiming to provide a historical account of the EAS process and examine Japan's role in the development of the EAS framework, this paper argues that Japan has put greater attention on the EAS and made numerous unilateral initiatives to develop it. While Japan does not seek ultimate power, it considers the EAS as an excellent opportunity to: (i) raise its influence in the region vis-à-vis China; (ii) elevate the status of the EAS in region-building and (iii) check Chinese advances by fulfilling its long-held policy of having other Asia Pacific countries, primarily Australia and New Zealand, join. Nevertheless, the decision to expand the EAS to include the USA and Russia will have some adverse effects on Japan's unilateral ambitions and the furtherance of regionalisation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores two issues. First, it focuses on the question of what is the most appropriate theoretical framework for the study of the urbanisation process in China and Vietnam over the last 30 years? It is argued that Le Fefebvre's theory of the ‘production of urban space’ offers the most useful approach because the political economy it adopts helps identify the major driving forces in the urbanisation process in these formerly socialist societies. The second issue involves the investigation of the differences and similarities in the urbanisation process in the two countries that are engaged in similar processes of structural economic transformation. The conclusion suggests that despite historical and cultural differences between Vietnam and China, the urbanisation process in both countries is exhibiting converging features as both countries are adopting a form of ‘hybrid urbanisation’ that involves a combination of socialist and market economies that does not involve an inevitable move to ‘capitalism’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of migration, some traditions persist while others do not. The Yulan Festival, also known as the Ghost Festival, continues to be observed by different subethnic Chinese migrant groups in Hong Kong for a variety of reasons. Although the festival organisation accentuates subethnic distinctions, paradoxically it also enables different groups to integrate into the larger community. The activities articulate various meanings of ‘place’– as ‘ancestral place’ on the mainland where the rituals are believed to originate, as the specific locality/neighbourhood in Hong Kong where the festival is held, and Hong Kong as a whole. This article, based on interviews with Chiu Chow and Hoklo participants, shows how they think of the different meanings of ‘place’, which in turn reflects the way they make sense of the process of migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2002, China surpassed the USA to become the world's largest foreign investment destination. Many Chinese cities, especially those along the coast, have become hot spots for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The urban development of these Chinese cities, as in most market societies, has increasingly depended upon their global connections. However, it is unclear to what degree the governments of these cities are able to influence the decisions of foreign investors. This paper uses Shenzhen city as a case study to examine how multi-nationals’ spatial and sectoral patterns have been changed over time and to what degree the local government has been able to influence multinationals’ locational and sectoral selection. It is concluded that Shenzhen has managed to create a strategy to maximise its ability to benefit from global economic forces and to attract multinational manufacturers in the locality, and particularly in increasing its target sector of technology-intensive industry. This case study demonstrates the importance of a strong city government in managing growth and reacting decisively to globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the most populous country on earth with 10 per cent of its rare species of flora and fauna, China's environmental practice is of great importance. Already the country is one of the most polluted places in the world. At least seven out of the ten of the world's most polluted cities are located in China. It is the second largest producer of greenhouse gases after the United States, inflicting heavy, long-term casualties on its own public health and economic development as well as on those of its close neighbours in the Asia-Pacific region. How to strike a proper balance between environmental protection and fast economic growth will have an important impact on China's modernisation outcome and its international standing. The country began to pay serious attention to environment problems in the 1970s. Since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s, it has signed or ratified many international treaties dealing with environmental issues. By now, it has entered into most international environmental regimes. But how compliant is China with respect to commitments made to these regimes? How willing and capable is it in complying with international environmental norms and rules? What does sustainable development mean to China? How do red tape, fear, inexperience, and ignorance affect China's efforts to protect its environment? And how do inter-ministerial wrangling and the growth of green NGOs within China affect its compliance? This paper tries to answer these questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This collection is concerned with understanding the nature of China’s spatial development during the transition to a socialist market economy. It does so primarily by questioning the applicability of the ‘desakota’ model and extended metropolitan region (EMR) concept to the contemporary Chinese space economy. Yu Zhu’s contribution extends the ‘desakota’ model by applying it to rural areas without the attraction of large cities. Wing-Shing Tang and Him Chung’s contribution discusses illegal land use and construction to highlight the rural-urban transition’s negative and disintegrative aspects glossed over by the ‘desakota’ model, which stem from the extension of urban administration to former rural areas and the redistributive effects of land use reform. Andrew Marton sees the original ‘desakota’ model being rejuvenated by introducing the notion of rural agglomeration, a clearer recognition of local administrative structures and an appreciation that development issues now take place within a global-local framework. George Lin explores the lingering effects of rural origins on Chinese identity and how this affects subsequent social and commercial groups within the Chinese diaspora. Peter Rimmer and Claude Comtois show how changes in China’s transport and telecommunications industry underlie, to a significant degree, the restructuring of China’s space economy and the country’s links to the rest of the world. Overall the contributions highlight that a new consensus will be required for any revised model of the Chinese space economy if this is to provide guidance for planners engaged in restructuring Chinese space in the new millennium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global discussion of payment for ecosystem services (PES) has moved beyond the simple notion of effecting environmental and livelihood improvement for participants. Changes in the local governance following the introduction of PES have become a focus as it may affect the local incentive for sustainable natural resource management. Although there has been increasing attention on the interplay between different institutions in shaping PES outcomes, the institutional outcomes resulting from these interactions and the understandings of local institutional dynamics are limited. Drawing on in‐depth case studies from Southwest China, this research uses an institutional bricolage framework to examine how pre‐existing and informal local institutions interacted with a newly introduced and formal PES programme – the Chinese Sloping Land Conversion Programme. It reveals that institutional bricolage processes can lead to positive ecological and socioeconomic outcomes when hybrid institutions were built to fit the local socio‐ecological contexts. The policy implication from this research calls for decentralisation reforms and provision of institutional flexibility. This would allow bricolage processes to foster adaptive governance in the implementation of PES programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]