How entrepreneurialism influences HSR-driven land development: Case studies of Anhui province, China

Abstract

Since 1980s, impacted by globalization and economic decentralization, Chinese local governments are well-known for its urban entrepreneurialism. However, after the 2008 economic crisis, state direct intervention was re-iterated and became one of the main strategies applied worldwide to tackle development challenges. The high-speed rail (HSR) development has been known as one of many state-led mega-projects that China committed to delivering, aims at stimulating the domestic economy and urbanization under this backdrop. By comparing two cases of HSR lines and new zones development in Anhui province, the study revealed that not only the central power directly intervened local land markets and achieved further consolidation of state power while the entrepreneurial central state power has incurred an increasingly intricate relation that produces a far-reaching impact on Chinese urban land policies and urban governance. This study, therefore, argues that the top-down intervention critically affected the local development through large-scaled infrastructures driven land development while the opportunities and risks have coexisted. Also, the land market, if not the market in general, has considerable influence over institutional structures and, in this case, resulted in governance transformation – central power entrepreneurialism. The empirical insights enriched the ‘entrepreneurialism’ and the urban governance transition resulted from it to an unexplored context and dimension.