Towards a comprehensive understanding of intercity cooperation in China’s city-regionalization: A comparative study of Shenzhen-Hong Kong and Guangzhou-Foshan city groups

Abstract

Against the backdrop of city-regionalization of Chinese urban jurisdictions, both the integration of urban-rural land-use and the conservation of arable land resources are under unprecedented challenges. It calls for intensive and systematic intercity cooperation. To understand the intercity cooperation’s features and mechanisms, this article formulates a three-pronged conceptual framework composed of frequencies of cooperative activities, thematic areas of cooperation, and governance model. Empirically, we carried out a comparative analysis of the cooperation models of Shenzhen-Hong Kong and Guangzhou-Foshan in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area. We have unveiled, two prevalent typologies of China’s intercity cooperation, which are moulded by de facto (shared) geopolitical scale, divergent deepening mechanisms, and concrete politico-economic setting. Specifically, the geographical and administrative scale (level) helps elicit domestic market-induced cooperation and strong state commitments. Situated within different politico-economic settings, a high level of non-state involvements is forged under the confluence of the exported-oriented economy of Shenzhen and the capitalist regime of Hong Kong. In contrast, the Guangzhou-Foshan city group witnesses the “state-dominated model” under China’s developmental state context. In both cases, local non-state actors’ initiatives substantiate the core collaborative practices, while regional planning visions get drafted subsequently by the state bodies. The latter further broadens and intensifies the intercity cooperations.