Contested geopolitics of distribution in the city‐region‐building: Promoting enclave industrial parks in the Pearl River Delta, China

Abstract

AbstractThe discourse on the ascendancy of city‐regions as a geopolitical framework predominately derives from neoliberal experiences, articulating the interplay between the politics of city‐regional distribution and the evolving role of the state in distribution governance, alongside the challenges related to post‐suburban development. Given the diverse political and economic frameworks across the state, exploring the geopolitics of city‐regional distribution beyond overwhelmed neoliberal assumptions is imperative. This study aims to explicate alternative geopolitics of distribution within China's recent city‐region‐building. Through studying the negotiation and development of two Enclave Industrial Parks (EIPs) in the Pearl River Delta, Southern China, we recontextualise the centrally orchestrated city‐regional distribution within the authoritarian framework of the developmental party‐state. We propose a conceptual framework delineating the transitional rationality of the multi‐scalar state, illustrating the political and territorial negotiation of distribution within a hierarchical resource arrangement. We argue that authoritarian distribution schemes, while manipulating the market regime, do not inherently impede the local distribution. Nonetheless, political and territorial mandates on city‐region‐building, which arbitrarily redefine the opportunities of local communities, perpetuate an authoritarian and contested nature of distribution, ultimately contributing to widening regional development disparities in contemporary China.