Urban China Research Articles

Rethinking Enclosed Neighbourhoods: Vital Infrastructure for Design Innovation, Civic Engagement, and Biopower in Urban China

Capitalist processes of urbanization and privatization have produced a growing number of enclosed neighbourhoods across the world. Critical scholarship often frames these neighbourhoods as products of an overextended neoliberalism and symbols of the fragmentation, segregation, and hierarchization of both space and society. This paper expands on these theoretical explanations with a focus on China. As neither neoliberal globalization nor tradition can adequately explain various types of China's enclosed neighbourhoods, a differentiated account suggests that they have evolved in different temporal, sociocultural, and political-economic contexts. Nevertheless, they have commonly played vital roles in (re)shaping everyday environments, driving economic restructuring, transforming governance systems, and facilitating normative transformations in China. China's experiences show that enclosed neighbourhoods have been, and will remain, the everyday environments that shape citizens' behaviours, values, and social relations. They have also served, and will continue to serve, as the vital infrastructure that enables both civic engagement and biopolitical control – an irony that remains to be resolved. Lessons from China suggest that future research and practice on enclosed neighbourhoods in different parts of the world can embrace the heterogeneity, adaptability, and practicability of neighbourhood transformations to inspire design and development innovation, enhance social cohesion, and empower citizens.

Migrant Status and Consumer Financial Fraud in China: A Two-Stage Approach Using a Representative Household Survey

Chinese migrants face numerous socioeconomic disadvantages. Little is understood about their vulnerability to consumer financial fraud, which can impede their integration into urban China and hamper the national priority of continued urbanization. This study utilizes nationally representative data from 2015 China Household Finance Survey to investigate migrants’ risk factors for consumer financial fraud across two stages: fraud exposure and victimization. Results reveal a distinct pattern of fraud risks based on migrant status and stages of fraud, partially supporting theories of disadvantaged consumer and routine activity. After adjusting for other factors, urban migrants exhibit a 28.2% higher likelihood of encountering fraud than urban residents, with rural migrants having a 57.3% higher probability of overall victimization. Recent movers face a higher risk. Market and digital engagement emerge as key factors influencing fraud exposure. These results underscore the necessity for targeted policy interventions aimed at fostering inclusive urbanization and promoting rural-urban integration.

餐厨垃圾高温好氧发酵工艺的研究

With the rapid urbanization in China, there has been a gradual increase in the production of kitchen waste, which poses significant environmental challenges. High-temperature aerobic fermentation is an effective method for recycling kitchen waste. This study focuses on utilizing kitchen waste, wood chips, and compound microbial agents as the main raw materials for fermentation. Various parameters such as temperature, moisture content, and amount of compound microbial agent were selected to conduct experiments on the high-temperature stage of the aerobic fermentation process for kitchen waste. Through response surface optimization experiments, it was determined that the optimal conditions for achieving fast high-temperature fermentation of kitchen waste are as follows: temperature at 60℃, moisture content at 60%, and amount of compound microbial agent at 10%. The order of influence on the reduction rate of kitchen waste is found to be temperature followed by the amount of compound microbial agent and moisture content. These findings provide valuable insights into resource utilization strategies for managing kitchen waste.

The Impact of Land Property Right on China’s Rural-urban Migration

The essay discusses China's transition to state ownership in urban areas and the Household Responsibility System (HRS) in rural regions. It explores how land property rights impact migration, with market mechanisms encouraging migration through land rental opportunities, while government mechanisms hinder it due to land appropriation and insecurity. Utilizing the CHARLS dataset, the study finds that income and gender consistently drive migration, with higher rent per person boosting migration in market systems and appropriation dampening it in government systems. The essay highlights the importance of delineated property rights for urbanization and economic development in China.

Long-term ambient ozone exposure and incident cardiovascular diseases: National cohort evidence in China

BackgroundLong-term ozone (O3) exposure has been associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in mounting cohort evidence, yet its relationship with incident CVD was poorly understood, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) experiencing high ambient air pollution. MethodsWe carried out a nationwide perspective cohort study from 2010 through 2018 by dynamically enrolling 36948 participants across Chinese mainland. Warm-season (April–September) O3 concentrations were estimated using satellite-based machine-learning models with national coverage. Cox proportional hazards model with time-varying exposures was employed to evaluate the association of long-term O3 exposure with incident CVD (overall CVD, hypertension, stroke, and coronary heart disease [CHD]). Assuming causality, a counterfactual framework was employed to estimate O3-attributable CVD burden based on the exposure-response (E-R) relationship obtained from this study. Decomposition analysis was utilized to quantify the contributions of four key direct driving factors (O3 exposure, population size, age structure, and incidence rate) to the net change of O3-related CVD cases between 2010 and 2018. ResultsA total of 4428 CVD, 2600 hypertension, 1174 stroke, and 337 CHD events were reported during 9-year follow-up. Each 10-μg/m³ increase in warm-season O3 was associated with an incident risk of 1.078 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.050–1.106) for overall CVD, 1.098 (95% CI: 1.062–1.135) for hypertension, 1.073 (95% CI: 1.019–1.131) for stroke, and 1.150 (95% CI: 1.038–1.274) for CHD, respectively. We observed no departure from linear E-R relationships of O3 exposure with overall CVD (Pnonlinear= 0.22), hypertension (Pnonlinear= 0.19), stroke (Pnonlinear= 0.70), and CHD (Pnonlinear= 0.44) at a broad concentration range of 60–160 µg/m3. Compared with rural dwellers, those residing in urban areas were at significantly greater O3-associated incident risks of overall CVD, hypertension, and stroke. We estimated 1.22 million (10.6% of overall CVD in 2018) incident CVD cases could be attributable to ambient O3 pollution in 2018, representing an overall 40.9% growth (0.36 million) compared to 2010 (0.87 million, 9.7% of overall CVD in 2010). This remarkable rise in O3-attributable CVD cases was primary driven by population aging (+24.0%), followed by increase in O3 concentration (+10.5%) and population size (+6.7%). ConclusionsLong-term O3 exposure was associated with an elevated risk and burden of incident CVD in Chinese adults, especially among urban dwellers. Our findings underscored policy priorities of implementing joint control measures for fine particulate matter and O3 in the context of accelerated urbanization and population aging in China.

Diversity patterns in non-standard employment and their relationship with self-rated health in urban China from 2010 to 2021

In recent decades, the rise of non-standard employment in China is thought to profoundly influence workers' health. Using data from the China General Social Survey 2010–2021, this study compares the self-rated health of workers engaged in various non-standard employment types with those in unemployment or standard employment in urban China. The research also investigates how these patterns have evolved over time among urban residents with different hukou types amid the expansion of China's welfare system and labor market shifts. We find that while unemployment is significantly related to worse self-rated health, the effects vary across different types of non-standard employment. Precarious employment has a more substantial adverse effect on health than part-time and self-employment, although the effect is less severe than that of unemployment. Between 2010 and 2018, the health impact of precarious employment declined, aligning with China's enhanced welfare system. However, its negative effect re-emerged in 2021. These patterns are particularly pronounced for urban residents holding agricultural hukou, highlighting the intersection of non-standard employment with the household registration system in shaping health outcomes within evolving labor markets.

Redefining the boundaries of Chinese cities—Analysis based on multisource geographical big data

In the process of rapid urbanization in China, the development of Chinese cities is progressing rapidly and urgently needs a new method of city boundary division that can reflect the true boundaries of cities. This study uses national road intersection and points of interest (POIs) data from 2016, among other multisource big data, to define the true boundaries of Chinese cities in that year. The results show the following: first, the use of clustering algorithms resulted in 6789 preliminary natural cities in 2016. Second, the combination of POI data and the elimination of POIs with a value of zero or below a threshold resulted in 4905 natural cities in China in 2016. Third, the 4905 natural cities were divided into four groups, resulting in 1981 sprawling cities, 842 vibrant and nonexpanding cities, 1048 expanding and nonvibrant cities, and 1034 vibrant and expanding cities. Fourth, the number and distribution of “ghost cities” nationwide were determined, with 612 natural cities identified as “ghost cities.” Fifth, various big datasets were used to verify the scientificity and rationality of the classification in this study.

Research on Green Finance Supporting Green and Sustainable Development of Railway Enterprises

In the process of rapid industrialization and urbanization in China, there is a strong demand for energy, while carbon emissions have not yet reached their peak. As an important market-incentivized environmental policy tool, green finance plays an increasingly important role in the process of carbon neutrality. The railway is the backbone of the transportation system, and a complete green finance application model has not yet been formed in its green development process. This article focuses on the impact of green finance on railway enterprises, analyzes the challenges and necessity faced by the development of green finance in railway. It also explores the green and sustainable development methods of railway enterprises, analyzes the application of green financial tools in enterprises, and proposes exploration and expansion suggestions from the development path and mechanism of green finance in railway enterprises. The study has shown that the main sources of green funds for railway construction come from green loans and green bonds. The construction of a green transformation plan takes green funds as an important innovative financing method. In the railway industry, enterprises innovate and develop financial service supply side reforms through green insurance and green leasing, and apply carbon trading and related financial derivatives to obtain green development benefits. Carrying out green finance in the railway industry can optimize financing structure, broaden financing channels, reduce the overall financing costs, and guide funds to clean, science and technology and other key areas, which is of great significance to support the high-quality development and green upgrading of the railway enterprises.

The Externality Impact of Urban Rail Transit on Urban Real Estate Prices in China

China has the largest and fastest growing urban rail transit system in the world. The system plays an important role in China's urbanization process, city governance and residents' daily commutes. The development of urban rail transit (URT) has influenced China's urban spatial structure and real estate supply, and has produced externalities on real estate value, including both positive and negative externalities. The research shows a positive correlation between URT and China’s real estate prices in general. The closer rail transit systems are, the greater the premium on real estate prices. In addition, the impact of rail transit on real estate prices shows a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. Different land use types and urban areas will also be affected. The research also found that the three stages of URT construction: planning, engineering construction and traffic operation have different effects on housing prices. At the same time, the impact of URT on land price will also change with China's economic situation and urbanization process. These influencing mechanisms above between URT and real estate prices may be linked to some factors. This research attempts to explain it by introducing urban spatial and land rent transformation, changes in real estate supply and demand, gentrification process, and different employment and housing pattern. This research points out the shortcomings and possible research directions of existing studies. In order to provide a reference for academic research and government policy making.

Strategic analysis on improving the proximity and accessibility in China: an exploratory development based on the study of the 15-minute city

Against the backdrop of rapid urbanization in China's megacities, the growing need for accessible and convenient transportation has become more pronounced. The rise of the 15-minute city concept in chrono-urbanism has become increasingly evident in recent years. In this context, the paper presents a comprehensive strategic analysis and explores future possibilities for enhancing proximity and accessibility in urban transportation. The focus is on the exploratory development of the 15-minute city concept. By adopting a qualitative analytical approach, the paper delves into an analysis based on Melbourne’s '20-minute city' to assess the applicability and diverse development of the 15-minute city model in Chinese urban centers. By acquiring current data and examples, the findings reveal the strengths and challenges of the 15-minute city concept, underscoring its adaptability and uniqueness across different geographical, national, and targeted contexts. The paper indicates that among megacities in China, the 15-minute city highlights the potential for integrating advanced technology to enhance urban mobility and proximity. It also calls for a shift towards high-quality development in urban planning to strengthen the resilience of city transport. The study’s exploratory nature also opens up avenues for future development within the 15-minute city framework, providing a robust base for improving urban transportation in China. The significance of this research lies in its contribution to shaping high-quality and livable urban environments, thereby supporting the ongoing transformation of China’s large urban centers into more accessible and human-centered spaces.

Current Situation Analysis of Low-carbon Community Based on BIM Technology and Related Problem Solving Measures

In the low-carbon construction target system, low-carbon buildings play a crucial role in achieving the goal of reducing carbon emissions. As China's urbanization development continues to deepen, communities have become the primary living environment for both urban and rural residents. Consequently, research on building carbon emissions has shifted from individual buildings to encompassing low-carbon community building facilities. Against the backdrop of digital intelligence and new quality productivity development, promoting the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology for low-carbon transformation in community buildings can effectively contribute to China's low-carbon goals. The utilization of BIM technology enhances planning and construction efficiency across various types of communities while minimizing rework and energy consumption. Furthermore, applying BIM technology to equipment and materials management enables better control over carbon emissions during building operation and maintenance stages, thereby fostering harmonious development between urban energy consumption and the community’s ecological environment.

Ecological States: Politics of Science and Nature in Urbanizing China by JesseRodenbiker, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 2023, xiii + 248 pp.

Ecological States: Politics of Science and Nature in Urbanizing China by JesseRodenbiker, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 2023, xiii + 248 pp.

Green urbanization’s role in mitigating oil market shocks on China’s macroeconomy: evidence from panel data analyses

ABSTRACT Our study assesses the extent of green urbanization in China’s provinces. We conduct an empirical analysis at the provincial level, using the IPVAR model to explore the relationship between oil market supply shocks and macroeconomic impacts in the context of local green urbanization levels. The findings indicate that increased green urbanization at the local level can mitigate the macroeconomic impact of oil market disruptions. Furthermore, this mitigating effect tends to strengthen over time.

INLA Estimation of Semi-Variable Coefficient Spatial Lag Model—Analysis of PM2.5 Influencing Factors in the Context of Urbanization in China

The Semi-variable Coefficient Spatial Lag Model (SVC-SLM) not only addresses the “dimension disaster” associated with the Varying Coefficient Spatial Lag Model(VC-SLM), but also overcomes the non-linear problem of the variable coefficient, and fully explores the hidden information of the model. In this paper, INLA is firstly used to estimate the parameters of (SVC-SLM) by using B-spline to deal with the non-parametric terms, and the comparative experimental results show that the INLA algorithm is much better than MCMCINLA in terms of both time efficiency and estimation accuracy. For the problem of identifying the constant coefficient terms in the SVC-SLM, the bootstrap test is given based on the residuals. Taking the PM2.5 data of 31 provinces in mainland China from 2015 to 2020 as an empirical example, parametric, non-parametric, and semi-parametric perspectives establish three models of Spatial Lag Model (SLM), VC-SLM, SVC-SLM, which explore the relationship between the covariate factors and the level of urbanization as well as their impacts on the concentration of PM2.5 in the context of increasing urbanization; among the three models, the SVC-SLM has the smallest values of DIC and WAIC, indicating that the SVC-SLM is optimal.

Do New Urbanization Policies Promote Sustainable Urbanization? Evidence from China’s Urban Agglomerations

China’s urbanization has received as much attention as its economic growth in recent years. While rapid urbanization has promoted modernization and wealth creation, it has also brought many problems and challenges. So, since 2014, the Chinese government has implemented a new urbanization policy nationwide. However, few researchers have examined whether China’s new urbanization policies promote sustainable urbanization. This paper evaluates the sustainable urbanization of 19 urban agglomerations in China using the elastic coefficient. The results indicate a significant increase in the number of cities achieving sustainable urbanization since the implementation of China’s new urbanization policy. The number has risen from 46 in the period of 2010–2015 to 71 in the period of 2015–2021. Considering the impact of the new coronavirus on economy, there would have been even more cities entering sustainable urbanization during the latter period. This indicates that the new urbanization policy has a positive influence on the sustainable urbanization of China’s urban agglomerations. The sustainable urbanization status is not static and changes with different policies that are implemented in different time periods. Therefore, it is important to find useful policies that can guide and enhance the urbanization process in these cities. In addition, cities that have a sustainable urbanization status are not perfect. To address this issue, it is important to categorize and implement targeted policies for cities experiencing both sustainable and non-sustainable urbanization. Changes in a city’s size or urbanization rates are not related to the city’s sustainable urbanization status. A larger city size does not indicate sustainable urbanization, and, similarly, cities with faster urbanization rates do not exhibit a higher level of urbanization sustainability.

New Clientelism in Urban China: Broker-Based Evasions in Residential Property Market

ABSTRACT Scholarly debates concerning the transformation of clientelism have rarely focused on everyday life in urban China. This ethnographic study in Nanjing city attempted to characterize the new patterns of patron–client ties by examining how real estate investors evade unfavorable rules and multiple layers of ‘authorities’, such as local governments, banks, and state-owned developers, offer or withdraw their support. The article highlights a new clientelism that differs from Chinese guanxi and old clientelism. The new form is broker-based, where new patrons and clients no longer interact directly but exchange through brokers. Brokers act as ‘white gloves’ for new patrons to maximize profit and security and as temporary bridges for clients to access patronage resources. Brokers are highly specialized, and their relationships with clients are not sentimental but instrumental, unlike zhongjian ren in guanxi. The emerging broker-based clientelistic networks reinforce inequality of opportunity but not necessarily economic inequality. Implications for understanding power and the housing system in contemporary China are discussed.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) pollution and risk assessment of soils at contaminated sites in China over the past two decades

With rapid urbanization in China, soil pollution at contaminated sites has emerged as a significant concern in the environmental protection plan. Moreover, extensive research has focused on the analysis of other major contaminants. However, over the past two decades, only a few studies have systematically analyzed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in contaminated soils, particularly their source identification, contamination level assessment, and risk evaluation. This study addressed these research gaps by comprehensively evaluating soil PAHs contamination at these sites through the collection and screening of relevant literature data from the past 20 years using a “front page filtering” approach. The results suggested that the most contaminated sites in China were associated with petrochemical plants, steel mills, and coking plants. Coal/biomass burning emerged as the predominant source of PAHs pollution in the soils of contaminated sites across China. Overall, the soils of contaminated sites exhibited relatively low levels of PAHs contamination. The single-factor index method showed that benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) was the PAH monomer with the highest contamination level. Geographically, Northeast and North China exhibited relatively higher contamination levels and ecological risks. Moreover, PAHs posed significant health hazards, as they exhibited significantly high toxic effects on the respiratory system, carcinogenicity, aromatic hydrocarbon receptors, estrogen receptors, and antioxidant response elements. Additionally, children and youths faced higher health risks than adults. The findings from this study provide a solid basis for developing strategies to manage PAHs at contaminated sites in China.

Did Urban Resilience Improve during 2005–2021? Evidence from 31 Chinese Provinces

In the context of climate change, various natural disasters and extreme weather events are occurring with increasing frequency. In addition, large-scale urbanization in China poses serious challenges to disaster resilience. The convergence of climate change and large-scale urbanization has made the enhancement of urban resilience (UR) an important guideline for current urban development. This study analyzes the UR of 31 provinces in China during 2005–2021 through the entropy method. A UR evaluation index system is constructed from the perspective of population resilience, social resilience, economic resilience, safeguarding facility resilience, and ecological resilience. The results demonstrate the following: (1) The overall performance of UR in China is relatively low, with an average value of 0.2390. (2) Chinese provinces significantly differ in UR levels, with Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Fujian being the top performers and Guangxi, Yunnan, Xinjiang, Gansu, and Tibet being the bottom. (3) From 2005 to 2021, the average UR value of the 31 Chinese provinces significantly improved. (4) Generally, the eastern, middle, and western regions exhibit relatively high, medium, and low average UR values, respectively. These research findings provide valuable references for Chinese policymakers to adopt measures for promoting UR enhancement and urban safety.

The social integration of rural migrants in urban China: The effect of hometown land tenure

AbstractWhile rural migrants living in different housing tenures present significantly variegated levels of social integration, little is known about how land tenure in their place of origin affects their integration into the host cities. Using the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey, we identified three dimensions of social integration: (1) permanent settlement intention, (2) cultural integration and (3) psychological integration. We find that migrants do not feel psychological isolation; their settlement intention is lower as a more realistic judgement of prospects. Their cultural integration is even lower, indicating it is a long‐term process. Migrants with land farming by relatives and friends and land subleasing to private are more socially integrated, while hiring someone to cultivate the land, leaving land uncultivated and other land disposal methods reduces migrants' social integration. Furthermore, land subleasing led to stronger psychological integration, even after controlling for the potential endogeneity issue. It weakens their attachment to their hometowns and increases their income to achieve stronger integration. The effect is more salient in the migrants of the new generation, in second‐tier cities and in the digital economy sector.

Outbreak narrative: China's migrant women labor in the COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic, which broke out in early 2020, has disrupted China's population mobility on which its cities depend. Especially, during the two years of the pandemic, female migrant laborers have been taking the risk of becoming the surplus population in an unstable and hyper-competitive job market. Such circumstance has led their images and urban engagement to be finitely recorded by the narrative that emerged based on the pandemic -- outbreak narrative in Priscilla Wald's term (2008), serving as an essential archive to examine Chinese women labor and urban history during the COVID-19. Taking an article narrating the vagrancy of a female migrant worker -- Ah Fen in Shanghai as a threshold, this paper explores China's gendered migrancy and female migrant communities during the COVID-19. By tracing China's COVID-19-related outbreak narratives through literary analysis, this paper reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic has flooded more migrant workers, especially female laborers, into the gig economy and this new urban engagement pattern has made migrant women's mobility higher and encouraged them to rebuild migrant communities in the city. However, the high mobility and fragmented urban distribution, in turn, have strengthened their roles as “infected strangers” in the outbreak narrative, particularly in the context of China's strict differentiated quarantine governance. This research, initiated by literary analysis, on the one hand, draws a dynamic map of capital and population flow during the pandemic era, while on the other hand, exposes the injustice among different classes, genders, and ages in urban China enlarged by the virus.