Logistical fixes and China’s spatial division of logistics integration - in search of economic rebalancing?

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article analytically foregrounds the role of logistics, infrastructure, and the transformation of capitalist circulation as an integral component of Chinese capitalism’s changing developmental paradigm. Based on a historical-comparative study of two developmental paradigms, the Open Door Policy (1978–2013) and New Normal (2014–2021), we argue that two layered logistical fixes have shaped Chinese capitalism, while driving unequal regional development between the coastal and inland regions. During the Open Door Policy, the initial logistical fix was centered around the coastal region as an export platform and logistical hub. Consequently, networked spaces of capital accumulation were formed based on the transfer of raw materials and intermediary inputs from the inland to the coastal region, followed by their processing into marketable commodities valorized in global export markets. Following China’s transition to the New Normal, the emergence of a new spatial division of labor between the coastal and inland regions necessitated a new logistical fix. This new logistical fix is notably centered around the inland region as a logistical hub, from which capital circulation and infrastructural linkages with neighboring Asian and coastal regions are being built.