China’s urban development in context: Variegated geographies of city-regionalism and managing the territorial politics of urban development

Abstract

China’s urban development is often regarded as exceptional in terms of both the pace of urbanisation and the size and territorial reach of the country’s constituent city-regions. This commentary examines the variegated role of city-regionalism in the internationalisation and domestic management of Chinese state territory, and considers how the rise of new city-regional urban forms inside China is transforming the politics of urban development. China urban development processes are neither exclusively unique nor are they resistant to general theorisation; instead they are essentially comparable and therefore amenable to further theoretical interpretation.