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UCI delegation participated in first annual NCF summit in Paris 25/05/2012 The Chinese delegation takes a group photo with Lady Barbara, Judge, Chairman of the UK Pension Protection Fund. The first annual New Cities Foundation (NCF) Summit was held in Paris on May 14-16. The summit brought together more than 500 urban policy makers and thought leaders to a three-day conference on global urbanization, with China as one of the core focuses. The mayor of Paris delivered a welcome speech. Other speakers including Gregor Robertson, Mayor of Vancouver; Ron Huldai, Mayor of Tel Aviv; Khalifa Sall, Mayor of Dakar; Greg Clark, UK Minister of State for Decentralisation and Cities; as well as the CEOs of General Motors, Ericsson, Cisco, and Suez gas. The Urban China Initiative (UCI), a partner of the NCF, assisted in organizing the summit by inviting and organizing 16 government delegates, enterprise leaders, and academics from China, as well as designing the plenary session "A Closer Look at Urban China: Towards the Urban Billion." Chinese delegates shared their insights as speakers at plenary and breakout sessions, including: "Securing Investments for the Urban Century: How do we Pay for the Urban Boom," which featured Li Dongming, General Manager of the Urban Fund at China Development Bank Capital, as a speaker. "Hard and Software City," which featured Jonathan Woetzel, Co-Chair of the Urban China Initiative, Senior Director at McKinsey & Co., as a speaker. "A Closer Look at Urban China: Towards the Urban Billion," which featured five speakers from the UCI delegation, including Yuan Yue, CEO and Chairman of Horizon Research Consultancy Group; James Lee, AIA LEED-AP, President of iContinuum Group; Jonathan Woetzel; Xiao Jincheng, Deputy Director of the Land Economy and Regional Research Bureau at the National Development and Reform Commission; and Xie Chengxiang, Deputy Mayor of Huangshi in Hubei Province. "Modern Urban

August 15, 2012 9:20 AM Posted By: Melissa M. Chan As criticism of land grabs and forced demolitions continues, the Wall Street Journal reports that despite signs of a rebound in the property market, Chinese developers are skittish at land auctions: A number of cities, including Shenyang, Dalian, Zhuhai and Tianjin, have seen disappointing land auctions, with many real-estate developers reluctant to add to their land holdings. That is bad news for local governments, which depend on land sales for a large slice of their revenue. Data from the Ministry of Finance show that revenue nationwide from land transfers dropped 27.1% to 1.35 trillion yuan ($212.1 billion) in the first seven months of the year compared with a year earlier. Government officials in Shenyang, Dalian and Tianjin all declined to discuss the data. An official in Zhuhai conceded that there has been a problem selling land even at reduced prices, adding that this has squeezed government resources. "It's difficult to sell land now," the official said. "The government had to scrap plans for auctions, and has had to sit tight and see how things work out." Some cash-rich companies like China Vanke Co., 000002.SZ -0.12% the nation's biggest listed developer by market value, have jumped into the market, either at auction or in second-hand deals. But others are holding back, waiting for local governments to lower their prices or to see if the market is making a more solid turnaround. Amid difficulties in auctioning off land, Beijing and local governments have produced conflicting real estate policies. From MarketWatch: Over the pas

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Adolf K.Y. Ng, James J. Wang Paru dans : Research in Transportation Economics, Volume 35, Issue 1, Pages 1-66 (May 2012) Editorial 1. Introduction Globalization has brought China ever close to the rest of the world not only through its trade and transport networks, but also many transport-related issues that seem to be in common among other countries, while simultaneously with special causes deep-rooted from its unique pathway of development especially in the past several decades. The major fundamental difference of China's development from other countries lies in its economy in general, while the transport sector, in particular, lies in the role of the government. Indeed, since the global financial crisis in 2008, advanced economies, such as the US and several EU countries, have intensified on how to redefine and strengthen the role of the state within respective economies. On the contrary, the Chinese situation is exactly the other way round: the debate is about how to reduce interferences from the very strong hands of the government towards a real regulated market. In this respect, the transport sector typifies this ongoing marketization process. On one extreme, the mode of highway transportation is fully marketized: private investors may construct toll expressways in almost any provinces, either as joint ventures partnering with state-owned firms or just as fully private developers. On the other side of the continuum, after more than three decades of 'reforms', railway infrastructures, as well as their operation, are still fully and tightly controlled by the Ministry of Railways (MOR) through its subsidiary's monopoly. In-between the highways and railways are air and maritime transportation, both of which being characterized by oligopolies with two to three state-owned listed companies taking up more than 80% of the market share. Given such situation, there is a clear interest for further understanding and re

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Nesru H. Koroso, Paul van der Molen, Arbind. M. Tuladhar, Jaap A. Zevenbergen Paru dans : Land Use Policy, Volume 30, Issue 1, January 2013, Pages 417-426 Abstract This research investigates whether the process of transfers of urban land use rights in China, particularly where the state plays a major role in the transfer of urban land, complies with basic principles of good governance. In order to assess market, an assessment framework is developed. A critical analysis of secondary data from official and non-official sources is done. Major changes since late 1980s in the institutional environment and subsequent results have been assessed. The findings reveal that the transfer of urban land use rights in China is gradually responding to an improved governance system. Institutional reforms have led to a steady improvement in indicators such as transparency, efficiency, and access to information. Nonetheless, the market has significant weaknesses in addressing equity issues, engaging stakeholders, tackling corruption and dealing with expropriations. In general, the paper finds that the efficiency and effectiveness of the urban land market largely depends not on the type of tenure regime per sé, but rather on the system of governance in place. Highlights ► Based on existing data sources, this paper analyses the performance of the market for urban land use rights in China. ► The assessment framework is based on governance principles like equity, participation, access to information, efficiency, and transparency. ► The result is that the market needs improvements regarding governance principles. ► However, a positive impact of the efforts of the government to improve can be observed.

LESLIE L. SHIEH Ph.D. THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) March 2011 China's nationwide Shequ (Community) Construction project aims to strengthen neighbourhoodbased governance, particularly as cities wrestle with pressing social issues accompanying the country's economic reforms. This policy has produced astounding outcomes, even though it is implemented through experimentation programs and the interbureaucratic document system rather than through legislation. It has professionalized the socialist residents' committees and strengthened their capacity to carry out administrative functions and deliver social care. Thousands of service centres have been built, offering a range of cultural and social services to local residents. This research addresses how the centrally promulgated policy is being implemented locally and what its impacts are in various neighbourhoods. The lens of community building is used to explore how the grass roots organize themselves and how they are defined and governed by the state. The research thus seeks to analyze the impact of Shequ Construction, not through measuring outcomes against the intentions set out in policy documents, but through considering the wider, sometimes unforeseen, implications for other processes going on in the city. Based on fieldwork in Nanjing, the chapters explore the meaning Shequ Construction has in four areas of urban governance: 1) fiscal reform and decentralization of public services, 2) suburban village redevelopment, 3) community-based social service provisioning through the emergent nonprofit sector, and 4) role of homeowners' association under housing privatization and neighbourhood inequality. By examining the interaction of Shequ Construction with a diverse set of policies, this research demonstrates how policy becomes interpreted during the course of implementation by local agencies as they contend with realities on the ground; and conversely how the Shequ pol

UPDATE: China Average Housing Price Rises in June After 9 Months of Decline - CREIS - China housing prices rebounded for the first time in June on month after nine months of decline, according to a private data provider -- Average housing price in June was CNY8,688 a square meter, rising 0.05% from CNY8,684 in May, reversing from May's 0.31% decline -- Housing prices in Inner Mongolia's Baotou city and Beijing rose by the widest margin, at 2.6% and 2.3%, respectively -- Sales have improved as China eases monetary policy, and prices are rising as developers have started to reduce discounts, analysts say (Adds comments from analysts in third to fourth paragraphs, 13th to 14th paragraphs, a homebuyer's comment in 10th to 12th paragraphs and background onrecent property easing moves by local governments in the final paragraphs.) By Esther Fung SHANGHAI--The average price of housing in 100 major Chinese cities recorded its first sequential rise in June after nine straight months of decline, in a further sign that the housing market is turning a corner, though analysts say a robust rebound in prices remains unlikely. A survey of property developers and real-estate firms showed the average price of housing in June was CNY8,688 a square meter, rising 0.05% from CNY8,684 in May, and overturning May's 0.31% decline, data provider China Real Estate Index System said Monday. "I believe the housing market has bottomed out," said Nicole Wong, a property analyst from CLSA. She also said that inventory will likely peak in the third quarter and prices will rise by a modest 5% by the fourth quarter, as demand for new launches has been strengthening in the past few months and developers don't need to lower their prices too much to attract buyers. On an on-year basis, the average housing price fell for a third consecutive month, sliding 1.90% from CNY8,856 booked in June 2011, and accelerating from May's 1.53% decline. The survey, compiled wi

Abstract It has been widely observed that China is under-urbanized. The central government has tried to use various policies to promote urbanization. In this paper, we evaluate one of these policies - count-to-city upgrading. Under China's hierarchical governance structure, a city status can only be determined and awarded by the central government. In the 1980s and 1990s, China adopted a formula-based county-to-city upgrading policy. Based on a large panel dataset covering all counties in China, we find that the formula was not strictly enforced in the practice. Moreover, jurisdictions that were upgraded to cities prior to 1998 do not perform better than their counterparts that remained county status in terms of both economic growth and providing public services. Largely because of these problems, this policy was called off in 1997. Given the strong need for urbanization, more indigenous institutional innovations are needed to find a viable way of creating cities, which would also provide compatible incentives to local governments. Highlights ► We examine a failed county-to-city upgrading policy in China. ► The newly awarded cities had a lackluster performance because the upgrading process was irreversible. ► After the policy was called off, China has adopted more indigenous institutional innovations in creating cities.

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Shenggen Fan, Lixing Li [et al.] Paru dans : Journal of Comparative Economics, Available online 10 January 2012, In Press, Corrected Proof Abstract It has been widely observed that China is under-urbanized. The central government has tried to use various policies to promote urbanization. In this paper, we evaluate one of these policies - count-to-city upgrading. Under China's hierarchical governance structure, a city status can only be determined and awarded by the central government. In the 1980s and 1990s, China adopted a formula-based county-to-city upgrading policy. Based on a large panel dataset covering all counties in China, we find that the formula was not strictly enforced in the practice. Moreover, jurisdictions that were upgraded to cities prior to 1998 do not perform better than their counterparts that remained county status in terms of both economic growth and providing public services. Largely because of these problems, this policy was called off in 1997. Given the strong need for urbanization, more indigenous institutional innovations are needed to find a viable way of creating cities, which would also provide compatible incentives to local governments. Highlights ► We examine a failed county-to-city upgrading policy in China. ► The newly awarded cities had a lackluster performance because the upgrading process was irreversible. ► After the policy was called off, China has adopted more indigenous institutional innovations in creating cities.

For more than three decades China has achieved remarkable success in economic development, but its rapid growth has resulted in considerable damage to the natural environment. In 1998, the World Health Organization reported that seven of the ten most polluted cities in the world were in China. Sulfur dioxide and soot produced by coal combustion fall as acid rain on approximately 30 percent of China's land area. Industrial boilers and furnaces consume almost half of China's coal and are the largest sources of urban air pollution. In many cities, the burning of coal for cooking and heating accounts for the rest. At the same time, since the beginning of economic reform in the late 1970s, the government has paid considerable attention to environmental problems, particularly in terms of regulatory responsibility and enforcement at the local government level. China passed the Environmental Protection Law for trial implementation in 1979, and in 1982 the constitution included important environmental protection provisions. Since then, various laws and policies have been put in place to address China's current and future urban environment. The 2010 World Exposition in Shanghai provided evidence that the Chinese government views its environmental problems as a priority. The green construction of the facilities for the Expo and particularly of the Chinese Pavilion reflected the emphasis the government has placed on protecting and improving the environment through new technologies. In addition, China's "eco cities" have also been recognized worldwide for advances in urban sustainability, such as Tianjin, Shenzhen, and Wuxi.

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Xi-Zhang Shan, School of Geographical Sciences, South China Normal University, No. 55 Zhongshan Avenue West, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510631, PR China Paru dans : Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, Volume 11, Issue 2, 2012, Pages 211-217 Abstract Urban green spaces serve a variety of residents with various perceptions, preferences and demands. Their effective governance and precision provision increasingly require public input. Due to the unique political regime, public decision-making in China has long been controlled by governments with the public neglected. With increasing civic consciousness in recent years in urban China, this research investigated attitudes and willingness toward participation in planning, management and design of urban green spaces in Guangzhou. Face-to-face questionnaire surveys were conducted at the 24 green sites across the city with 595 respondents successfully interviewed. The results demonstrated the positive attitudes and strong willingness toward participation despite socioeconomic variations, fitting into a global trend of increasing civic consciousness and strengthening the theoretical base of public participation. Practically, the positive findings lay a sound social foundation for the participatory decision-making in urban China, and help to drive local governments more open and inclusive and develop effective governance strategies and mechanisms to promote public participation in decision-making of urban green spaces.

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : XiaoFang Sun, TianXiangYue, ZeMeng Fan Paru dans : Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13, 2012, Pages 590-597 18th Biennial ISEM Conference on Ecological Modelling for Global Change and Coupled Human and Natural System Abstract Land use changes affect many aspects of Earth System functioning, for example in impacting global carbon cycle, contributing to climate change, or increasing soil erosion. The simulation of land use change is important in environmental impact assessment and land use planning. We assessed the land use scenarios of China in the next 100 years based on the SMLC (surface modelling of land cover change) model and Dyna-CLUE (dynamic conversion of land use and its effects) model. Three SRES scenarios were evaluated: Global Economy (A1FI): lean government, strong globalization; Continental Markets (A2a): lean government, regional culture and economic development; Regional communities (B2a): much government intervention, regional cultural and economic development. Ten land cover types were simulated, which are cultivated land, woodland, grassland, built-up land, water area, wetland, nival area, desert, bare rock and desertification land. The SMLC model was used to calculate changes in area for each land use types in the future at country level while the spatially explicit land use model Dyna-CLUE was used to simulate land use pattern at 2 km2 resolution based on the country level areas demands for each land cover type. The results show that the cultivated land would decrease in all of the three scenarios, while in the A2a scenario, the cultivated land would decrease with the lowest rate because of the high population growth, high level of market protection and low agricultural efficiency; in the B2a scenario, it would decrease with the highest rate caused by the decreased population numbers and increased crop productivity. The nival area would decrease with the highest rate in the A1FI

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Ying Tanga, Robert J. Masonb, Ping Sun Paru dans : Habitat International, Volume 36, Issue 3, July 2012, Pages 388-395 Abstract Since the onset of rapid economic development and urbanization, China's land resources-rather than capital, technology and human resources-have become the lead limiting factor in constraining economic growth. Coordination of urban and rural construction land (CURCL) can be a very effective means for reducing conflicts between economic development and land protection. This research examines the roles of stakeholders involved in the CURCL process. The reasons why the interests of legitimated stakeholders were encroached upon are analyzed and countermeasures to protect the interests of legitimated stakeholders are proposed. Ambiguously defined property rights for owners of rural construction land, unclear conceptions of the public interest, and overlap of power and interest among multiple levels of authority are the reasons why legitimated stakeholders' interests were encroached upon. Legitimizing construction land ownership clearly, better defining the multiple conceptions of public interest, opening up express channels for expression of the public interest, and clarifying governments' functions in land interest adjustment are the countermeasures to protect the interests of legitimated stakeholders. Highlights ► We examine roles of key stakeholders involved with urban and rural construction land in China. ► Agricultural protection measures notwithstanding, farmers' interests frequently are neglected. ► Local governments seek to maximize profits at the expense of public interests. ► Profit maximization is inherent to private enterprises. ► Government roles and express channel for farmers are important for fair interest distribution.

Ngeow, Chow Bing, "Democratic development in China's urban communities" (2010). Public and International Affairs Dissertations. Paper 7. http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20000145 ABSTRACT Since mid-1990s, the Chinese government has been promoting a policy of community construction (shequ) in urban areas. One of the main focuses of this policy is to build up the democratic infrastructure and institutions at the grassroots level in the cities. As a result, political and institutional reforms to make grassroots governance more democratic have been experimented and implemented in many cities. Members of the residents' committee, the "mass-organization" entrusted to governance the communities (shequ), are now to be democratically elected. The administration of the communities has to adhere to the principles of democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision. The grassroots organs of the ruling Chinese Communist Party have to adapt to the democratic institutions, while non-governmental organizations, especially in the form of the homeowners' committee, also emerges as another channel for urban residents to participate in public affairs. The major aim of this study is to document and analyze these institutional designs and reforms. It also provides an interpretive perspective for these grassroots democratic reforms, arguing that these reforms embody a Chinese model of democratic development.

The development of high-tech industrial parks (HTIPs) has become a salient phenomenon in China's economic and urban development. Current studies regarding the development of HTIPs tend to focus either on the active role of the local government or on the consequences of technological innovation that those parks may have brought about. Very few studies have paid attention to the intrinsic relationship between the process of space production in building HTIPs and the effect on urban development. To fill this theoretical gap, this article considers developing HTIPs as a territorial project through which both central and local states seek to promote economic growth by reorganizing their territories so as to facilitate capital accumulation based on building high-tech industrial parks. The authors use Beijing's Zhongguancun and Shanghai's Yangpu areas as examples to show the active role played by district governments in promoting and using the symbol of "high tech" to develop industrial estates. In the end, due to the HTIPs' quick tax-generating potentiality, their construction has given rise to commodity housing and commercial projects that district governments are much more enthusiastic to pursue. The property-led high-tech development projects have paradoxically generated a negative impact on sustainable high-tech development.

K. Sophia Woodman Ph.D. THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2011 This study uses the China case to revisit some of the central assumptions of the literature on citizenship, showing how citizens and states are formed in and through the local places where citizenship is practiced. It suggests that the location of the political and of citizens have been an understudied aspect of citizenship orders, not just in relation to the growing impact of global and transnational forces, but also in sub-state entities. Through fine-grained examination of the daily interactions between citizens and state agents, this study shows how citizenship in China is embedded in local relationships of belonging, participation and entitlement anchored in institutions that organize people in workplaces, urban neighborhoods and rural villages. Based on 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork in four communities in Tianjin, China, the study examines how two such institutions, the villager and residents committees, act as a nexus for participation and formal rights, while also providing social welfare to the needy. The practices of these institutions bind citizens to the state through a face-to-face politics that acts both as a mechanism of control and a channel for claims-making and pressure from below, a mode of rule I call "socialized governance." Both enabling and constraining, this exists in tension with bureaucratic-rational forms of governance, such as the current Chinese leadership's objective of "ruling in accordance with law." While the frameworks for citizenship are set at the national level, its local, cellular character means great variation among places in both form and practice. My model of local citizenship helps explain patterns of economic and social inequality and of contentious politics in contemporary China. While the unsettling of the congruence between the national and citizenship has been widely noted, this study points to

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : James J. Wang, Chaohe Rong, Jiang Xu, Sui Wai Oscar Or Paru dans : Research in Transportation Economics, Volume 35, Issue 1, May 2012, Pages 26-33, Transport Development in China Abstract Transport networks are hierarchal in essence. In this paper, we explore the relationship between the financing structure and the hierarchal evolution of railway network development, using the case of China. Although privatization and corporatization in transport provision have been trends in some parts of the world, the national government is still the main body responsible for railway development in many countries. Among these countries, China and India are the only two that include the Ministry of Railways (MOR). In India, the entire country's railways are clearly defined as public services provided and managed by the MOR. In China, railways have been corporatized; yet, the MOR and the National Railway Corporation are still widely regarded as a single body that has monopolistic power over almost all railway systems at the national and regional levels in both infrastructure development and operation. We argue that when multi-level railway networks are evolved from a single-level (national) network due to market growth in countries such as China, where different levels of government are responsible for infrastructure planning and development, the state's monopolistic control of operation and its corresponding financing structure may not fit the operation of new multi-level networks. However, the suitable institutional set-up for the new networks may be delayed or never established for many reasons, some of which, as demonstrated in this paper, are place-specific and path-dependent. The case study of Chinese railway systems in comparison with the situations of other Asian countries (i.e. India and Japan) will shed some light on a better understanding of various financing models and development paths of multi-level transpo

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Wanxin Li, Jieyan Liu, Duoduo Li Paru dans : Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 98, 15 May 2012, Pages 65-72 Abstract By comparing three cases of environmental activism in China, our paper answers the following three questions about public participation in environment protection in China: (1) what are the drivers for public participation, (2) who are the agents leading the participation, and (3) do existing laws facilitate public participation? We find heightened public awareness of environmental degradation and increasing anxieties over health and property values drive people to fight for more political space to influence decisions that have an impact on the environment. Despite the promises one finds in the letter of Chinese laws, Chinese society lacks a meaningful institutional framework to allow public participation, even in the area of environmental protection. The Chinese government mainly passively responds to public demands on an ad hoc basis, with no institutional commitment for engaging the public on environmental issues. This is unfortunate, because public policies without adequate public input are doomed to be clouded by illegitimacy. Highlights ► The public fights for more political space to influence environmental decisions. ► A concern for health and property values drives public environmental participation. ► Public participation has not yet been well institutionalized in China. ► The Chinese government passively responds to public demands on an ad hoc basis.

Zacharias, John (2012) Resisting motorization in Guangzhou. Habitat International, 36 (1). pp. 93-100. Private motorization has accompanied unprecedented urbanization in China, as a matter of public policy. Planning at the provincial and city levels has supported the rapid build-up of the private car fleet in major cities through the development of regional and urban highway networks, higher capacity local streets and much higher standards for car parking in new developments. By contrast, urban planning until 1994 concentrated on the building of community and the support for a non-motorized lifestyle. Guangzhou experienced particularly rapid city-building during this period because it was at the centre of the market reforms launched in 1978. The communities that were built form a broad ring around the historic core of the city, constituting one of the most significant obstacles to government ambitions to maintain the recent growth rates in car ownership. Guangyuan and Jiangnanxi are examples of such middle-class, home-owning communities where daily life remains almost exclusively non-motorized. Self-organized groups in the community are increasingly vocal and active in their demands to enhance local environmental quality and restrict local motorization. Local municipal authorities, although increasingly active and autonomous, try to strike a balance between government objectives and local demands. The application of motorization illustrates the growing gap between high-level policy and grassroots urban planning in Guangzhou.

Xuefei Ren's work on the high-end of the building boom in China brings together the sociology of globalization with the study of architecture and the built environment. Building Globalization treats architectural production as crucial to the material and symbolic ways in which global cities are made. Based on Ren's doctoral research at the University of Chicago, the book draws on fieldwork conducted in Beijing and Shanghai between 2004 and 2008, covering the bull years leading up to the Beijing Olympics. China is now taken to exemplify the geo-demographic shift that has seen developing countries lead current processes of urbanisation. However the Chinese government's attitude towards quanqiuhua chengshi (global cities) and its support for rapid urban growth from the mid-late 1990s represented a striking reversal of official policy which had been to limit the growth of large cities and promote instead the development of small-medium centres (p.11). The re-scaling of state power to metropolitan level in the interests of enhancing urban competitiveness has been an international trend in recent decades. In China this has proved particularly effective in driving urban growth, given state ownership of land and government control over household registration, urban planning and development decisions. Metropolitan governments in China have the kind of ownership and discretionary powers of which the most boosterist western city mayors can only dream. Ren argues convincingly that the processes shaping these cities are increasingly transnational; in particular, the forces that make buildings 'operate beyond national boundaries, as seen in the circulation of investment capital, the movements of built-environment professionals, and the diffusion of new technologies' (p.6). However, while Chinese economic growth may have destabilized a global balance of power dominated by the triad of the USA, the European Union and Japan, Ren's analysis suggests that older core-peripher

DOI : http://dx.doi.org.gate3.inist.fr/10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.08.001 [ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Fulung Wu (Bartlett School of Planning, University College of London, United Kingdom) Paru dans : Geoforum Volume 43, Issue 2, March 2012, Pages 169-171, SI - Party Politics, the Poor and the City: reflections from South Africa "Following the fever for 'development zones' in the early 1990s and the 'global city' in the late 1990s, Chinese local governments - and municipal governments in particular - are now enthusiastic to build more 'eco-cities'. The Dongtan project on Chongming Island in Shanghai was the first experiment. This project started in 2005 when the Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation (SIIC) contracted Arup, a UK-headquartered international engineering consultancy firm, to prepare a master plan. As a strategic partner of SIIC, Arup took the responsibility of planning the 80 km2 of land at Dongtan. The project received widespread attention around the world, partially because of excellent information dissemination by the project. Dongtan originally aimed to accommodate 10,000 people in the first phase by 2010 when World Expo was held in Shanghai, and would expand to 80,000 people by 2020. By 2050, Dongtan would be built into a new city of half a million people [...]"