In this paper regional policy in the People's Republic of China over the last four decades is critically reviewed. Particular attention is paid to the ideological and political dimensions, and their changes, as guided by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which accompany the need to modernize China's underdeveloped economy. In part 1 of the paper the interpretations of the urban question, within the Marxist–Maoist school of thought, upon which the policy rationales and justifications are based, are outlined. Then, a two-part historical–contextual analysis of the regional policy and its development in China with a tentative schema is provided, that focuses on so-called ‘town–country’ contradictions and processes of urbanization and other spatial issues. Part 4 is a synthesis of the development pattern including a discussion of the underlying dynamics. The paper ends with remarks on the reemergence of ideological–political struggles within and beyond the party, and its repercussions for the urban question in the coming decade.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AndorsS P, 1979, “China's industrialization in historical perspective”, in China's Road to Development3rd edition, Ed. MaxellN, (Pergamon Press, Oxford) pp 27–39
2.
BergerR, 1975, “Economic planning in the People's Republic of China”World Development3552–554
3.
BernsteinT P, 1977Up to the Mountains and Down to the Villages: The Transfer of Youth from Urban to Rural China (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT)
BuckD D, 1978Urban Change in China: Politics and Development in Tsinan, Shan-tung, 1890–1949 (The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI)
6.
BuckD D, 1981, “Policies favoring the growth of smaller urban places in the People's Republic of China, 1949–1979”, in Urban Development in Modern China Eds MaL J CHantenE W, (Westview Press, Boulder, CO) pp 114–146
7.
BuckD D, 1987, “The study of urban history in the People's Republic of China”, in Urban History Yearbook 1987 (Leicester University Press, Leicester) pp 61–75
8.
CellC P, 1980, “The urban–rural contradiction in the Maoist era: The pattern of deurbanization in China”Comparative Urban Research7(3) 48–69
9.
ChanK WXuX Q, 1985, “Urban population growth and urbanization in China since 1949: Reconstructiong a baseline”China Quarterlynumber 104, 583–613
10.
ChangS D, 1976, “The changing system of Chinese cities”Annals of the Association of American Geographers66398–415
11.
ChangS D, 1982, “Modernization and urbanization problems in China”, OP 26, Department of Geography and Geological Research Centre, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
12.
ChenC S, 1973, “Population growth and urbanization in China, 1953–70”Geographical Review6355–72
13.
DemkoG JRegulskaJ, 1987, “Socialism and its impacts on urban processes and the city”Urban Geography8289–292
14.
DuttonMHealyP, 1985, “Marxist theory and socialist transition: The construction of an epistemological relation”, in Chinese Marxism in Flux 1978–1984 Ed. BruggerB, (Croom Helm, Andover, Hants) pp 13–30
15.
EngelsF, 1949a, “The origins of the family, property and the state”, in Selected Works, Volume 2MarxKEngelsF, (Foreign Language Publishing House, Moscow) pp 276–300
16.
EngelsF, 1949b, “The peasant question in France and Germany”, in Selected Works, Volume 2MarxKEngelsF, (Foreign Language Publishing House, Moscow) pp 340–350
17.
EngelsF, 1954Anti-Duhring, 1876–78 (Foreign Language Publishing House, Moscow)
18.
EngelsF, 1964, “The housing question”, in Selected Works, Volume 1MarxKEngelsF, (Foreign Language Publishing House, Moscow) pp 111–112
19.
ElvinMSkinnerG W, 1974The Chinese City Between Two Worlds (Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA)
20.
FarinaM B, 1980, “Urbanization, deurbanization and class struggle in China, 1949–79”International Journal of Urban and Regional Research4484–501
21.
FeiX-T, 1953China's Gentry: Essays in Urban–Rural Relations (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL)
22.
FriedmannJWeaverC, 1979Territory and Function: The Evolution of Regional Planning (Edward Arnold, Sevenoaks, Kent)
23.
GaltungJ, 1987, “The Chinese path to development”, in Learning From China: Development and Environment in Third World Countries Ed. GlaeserB, (Allen and Unwin, London) pp 32–55
24.
GinsburgN, 1980, “Urbanization and development—processes, policies, and contradictions”, in China: Urbanization and National Development Eds LeungC KGinsburgN, (Department of Geography, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL) pp 259–280
25.
KirkbyR J R, 1985Urbanisation in China: Town and Country in a Developing Economy, 1949–2000 AD (Croom Helm, Andover, Hants)
26.
KoshizawaA, 1976, “China's urban planning: Toward development without urbanization”The Developing Economies163–33
27.
KuhnP A, 1970Rebellion and its Enemies in Late Imperial China (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA)
28.
KwokR Y W, 1981, “Trends of urban planning and development in China”, in Urban Development in Modern China Eds MaL J CHantenE W, (Westview Press, Boulder, CO) pp 147–193
29.
KwokR Y W, 1982, “The role of small cities in Chinese urban development”International Journal of Urban and Regional Research6549–565
30.
KwokR Y W, 1987a, “Metropolitan development in China: Struggle between two contradictions”, working paper, Centre of Urban Studies and Urban Planning, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
31.
KwokR Y K, 1987b, “Recent urban policy and development in China”Town Planning Review58383–399
32.
LauC C, 1987, “Urban China in transition: The impact of economic reforms”, in China's Economic Reforms OP 73, Eds ChaiJ C HLeungC K, (University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong) pp 108–129
33.
LeninV I, 1960a, “A characterisation of economic romanticism”, in Collected Works, Volume 2LeninV I, (Foreign Language Publishing House, Moscow) pp 133–265
34.
LeninV I, 1960b, “The heritage we renounce”, in Collected Works, Volume 2LeninV I, (Foreign Language Publishing House, Moscow) pp 493–534
35.
LiM B, 1987, “The proper interpretation and implementation of the basic policy in China's urban development”Chinese Sociology and Anthropology19101–116
36.
LichtheimG, 1969The Origins of Socialism (Praeger, New York)
37.
LimG-C, 1988, “Theory and taxonomy of sectoral, distributional, and spatial policies”Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy6225–236
38.
LiuG G, (Ed.), 1981Issues in the Theory of Balance in National Economic Development (Zhgongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe, Beijing)
39.
LiuG GWangX M, 1980, “A study of the speed and balance of China's economic development”Zhongguo Shehui Kexue4 (July), 3–22
40.
LiuS Q, 1949Xin Minzhu Zhuyi Chengshi Zhengze (Urban Policy for New Democracy) (Xin Minzhu Chubanshe, Hong Kong)
41.
LoweD M, 1966The Function of ‘China’ in Marx, Lenin, and Mao (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
42.
MaH, 1982, “Fully develop the use of coastal cities in the four modernization processes”Fingji Guanli1 (January), 5–8
43.
MaL J CCuiG, 1987, “Administrative changes and urban population in China”Annals of the Association of American Geographers77373–395
44.
MannS, 1984, “Urbanization and historical change in China”Modern China10(1) 70–113
45.
MaoT-T, 1954The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party originally published 1939 (Foreign Languages Press, Peking)
46.
MaoT-T, 1956, “On the Ten Great Relationship”Mao Tse-tung Unrehearsed: Talks and Letters, 1956–71 translated and edited by SchramS R, (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middx) pp 61–83
47.
MaoT-T, 1961a, “Report to the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, March 5, 1949”, in Selected Works, Volume 4 Mao Tse-tung (Foreign Languages Press, Peking) pp 305–374
48.
MaoT-T, 1961b, “On the People's Democratic Dictatorship”, in Selected Works, Volume 4 Mao Tse-tung (Foreign Languages Press, Peking) pp 411–424
49.
MaoT-T, 1965a, “On contradictions”, in Selected Works, Volume 5 Mao Tse-tung (Foreign Languages Press, Peking) pp 384–421
50.
MaoT-T, 1965b, “The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party”, in Selected Works, Volume 2 Mao Tse-tung (Foreign Languages Press, Peking) pp 305–334
51.
MaoT-T, 1970, “Sixty points on working methods”, in Mao Papers Ed. ChenJ, first published 1958 (Oxford University Press, Oxford) pp 60–70
52.
MarxK, 1969, “The German ideology”, in Selected WorksMarxKEngelsF, (Progress Publishers, Moscow) pp 19–59
53.
MarxKEngelsF, 1950, “The Manifesto of the Communist Party”, in Selected Works, Volume 1MarxKEngelsF, (Progress Publishers, Moscow) pp 37–59
54.
MeisnerM, 1982Marxism, Maoism and Utopianism (The University of Wisconsin Press, Maddison, WI)
55.
MerringtonJ, 1976, “Town and country in the transition to capitalism”, in The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism Ed. HiltonR, (Lowe and Brydone, London) pp 170–195
56.
MoteF W, 1977, “The transformation of Nanking, 1350–1400”, in The City in Late Imperial China Ed. SkinnerG W, (Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA) pp 101–154
57.
MurpheyR, 1970, “The Treaty Ports and China's modernization: What went wrong?”, Michigan Papers in Chinese Studies 7, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
58.
MurpheyR, 1977The Outsiders: The Western Experiences in India and China (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI)
59.
MurpheyR, 1980aThe Fading of Mao's Vision: City and Country in China's Development (Methuen, New York)
60.
MurpheyR, 1980b, “The urban road to development”, in China: Urbanization and National Development Eds LeungC KGinsburgN, (Department of Geography, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL) pp 111–129
61.
NekrasovV, 1974The Territorial Organization of the Soviet Economy (Progress Publishers, Moscow)
62.
NolanPWhiteG, 1984, “Urban bias, rural bias or state bias? Urban–rural relations in post-Revolutionary China”The Journal of Development Studies2052–81
63.
PannellWMaL J C, 1983China: The Geography of Development and Modernization (John Wiley, New York)
64.
ParishW L, 1987, “Urban Policy in centralized economies: China”, in The Economics of Urbanization and Urban Policies in Developing Countries: A World Bank Symposium Eds TolleyG SThomasV, (The World Bank, Washington, DC) pp 73–84
65.
RenaudB, 1981National Urbanization Policy in Developing Countries (Oxford University Press, Oxford)
66.
RenaudB, 1987, “Urban development policies in developing countries”, in The Economics of Urbanization and Urban Policies in Developing Countries—a World Bank Symposium Eds TolleyG SThomasV, (The World Bank, Washington, DC) pp 61–72
67.
RichmanB M, 1969Industrial Society in Communist China (Random House, New York)
68.
RollC RYehK-C, 1975, “Balance in inland and coastal industrial development”, in China: A Reassessment of the EconomyJoint Economic Committee, US Congress, 10 July (US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC)
69.
SalaffJ, 1967, “The urban communes and anti-city experiment in Communist China”China Quarterly2982–110
70.
SchenkH, 1977, “Some concepts behind urban and regional planning in China”Progress in Planning8153–161
71.
SchramS, 1966Mao Tse-Tung (Simon and Schuster, New York)
72.
SaundersP, 1989Social and the Urban Question first published 1981 (Unwin Hyman, London)
73.
StalinG, 1952Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR (Progress Publishers, Moscow)
74.
State Statistical Bureau of the People's Republic of China, 1986Statistical Yearbook of China 1986 (Economic Information Agency, Hong Kong)
75.
StrettonH, 1978Urban Planning in Rich and Poor Countries (Oxford University Press, Oxford)
76.
TalmonJ L, 1965The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy (Praeger, New York)
77.
ThompsonR, 1975, “City planning in China”World Development3595–605
78.
TianJ HLiuG G, 1981, “A summary of discussion on the theory of overall balance of the national economy”Zhongguo Shehui Kexue397–102
79.
TianS, 1958, “Guanyu chengshi fazhan guimunde yanjiu” (Research on the sizes of cities)”Jihua Jingji126–27
80.
TrewarthaG Y, 1952, “Chinese cities: Origins and functions”Annals of the Association of American Geographers4269–93
81.
Van der SprenkelS, 1977, “Urban social control”, in The City in Late Imperial China Ed. SkinnerG W, (Stanford University Press, Stanford) pp 609–632
82.
WangG W, 1957, “How to organize agricultural labour power”Jihua Jingji (Planned economy)8(13) 6–13
83.
WuC T, 1987, “Chinese socialism and uneven development”, in The Socialist Third World Eds ForbesDThriftN, (Basil Blackwell, Oxford) pp 53–97
84.
WuC TIpD F, 1981, “China: Rural development—alternating combinations of top-down and bottom-up strategies”, in Development from Above or Below Eds StohrW BTaylorD R F, (John Wiley, Chichester, Sussex) pp 152–182
85.
XuX Q, 1984, “Characteristics of urbanization of China—changes and causes of urban population growth and distribution”Asian Geographers315–28
86.
XueM Q, 1979, “Study and apply the objective laws of social economic development”Jinji Yanjiu61–20
87.
YeS Z, 1987, “Urban policies and urban housing programs in China”, in Urbanization and Urban Policies in Pacific Asia Eds FuchsR JJonesG WPerinaE M, (Westview Press, Boulder, CO) pp 301–316
