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[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

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

International Comparative Analysis of Poverty in Asia: Urbanization, Migration and Social Policy Symposium held at Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China, November 1-4, 2012 Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU) and the Institute for Poverty Alleviation and International Development (IPAID) are jointly organizing a symposium in October 2012 on the effects of urbanization and poverty alleviation in Asia. The main purpose is to address the widening income gap between rural and urban areas in Asia in the past thirty years. Development scholars, researchers, and practitioners are invited to submit high-quality papers with a focus on the symposium theme of urbanization and migration in Asia and its affect on poverty in both rural and urban areas. The symposium aims to create a dialogue among scholars of Asian development studies to address effective urban and rural poverty reduction strategies. The symposium will focus on the following set of issues which include (but are not limited to): Rural development and urbanization in Asia International standards of poverty alleviation Access to land and land right education (rights, inequity, and poverty) Labor mobility and poverty Gender based income inequality Social policy to tackle poverty and inequality Housing, transportation and infrastructure development National policies and measures for the eradication of poverty The symposium will conclude with an excursion to disaster areas in Chengdu affected by the 2008 earthquake which killed an estimated 69,000 people. SWJTU has taken a lead in the recovery efforts and research cooperation in the field of poverty alleviation in Western China's less developed areas. Selected papers from the symposium will be published in a special edited volume of the Journal of Poverty Alleviation and International Development (JPAID) in 2013. Submission Deadlines Submission of a 500 word abstract is due by September 15, 2012. If accepted, SWJTU will communicate with you in

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.foar.2012.02.013 [ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : GU Chaolin, WU Liya, Ian Cook Paru dans : Frontiers of Architectural Research, Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2012, Pages 101-149 Abstract This paper is a comprehensive study on the progress in research on Chinese urbanization. On the basis of the concept and connotation of Chinese urbanization defined by Chinese scholars, the paper systematically collects the research results on the issues concerning urbanization in China from the different approaches of demography, geography, city planning, economics and history, reviewing the process of research on Chinese urbanization made both domestically and internationally. In this paper, the domestic studies fall into five periods as follows: the initial period of research on urbanization in China (1978-1983); the period with both domestically constructed and borrowed theories on urbanization (1984-1988); the period of research on leading urbanization factors and localization (1989-1997); the period with the research greatly promoted by the government (1998-2004); and the period featuring flourishing studies on the science of urbanization in China (2005 till today). In contrast, the overseas research on Chinese urbanization can be divided into three periods: the period studying the history of urbanization in China (before the 1970s); the systematic research on Chinese urbanization (1970-1999); and the comprehensive research on Chinese urbanization (2000 till today). The paper focuses on the key results of research on Chinese urbanization, including nine issues as follows: the guidelines and road for urban development in China, the features of Chinese urbanization, the mechanism driving the growth of Chinese urbanization, the process of Chinese urbanization, the spatial patterns of Chinese urbanization, the urbanization in rural areas in China, the comparison of urbanization in China and other co

8/05/2012 On May 3, Gengtian Zhang, Director of Research at the Urban China Initiative (UCI), gave a lecture on how to promote healthy urbanization for the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in Sichuan Province. Most of the 100 delegates at the talk were urban planning and policy directors and professionals, mainly from the NDRC offices for Sichuan Province, Kuoquan County, and individual cities in Sichuan. Zhang's lecture described the direction and focus of urbanization development inChina, including some research results from an international perspective, and proposed how to promote healthy urban development in China's cities. The lecture focused on six main ideas critical to China's continuing urbanization, including promoting a healthy model of urban development, improving the quality of urban planning, promoting the welfare of migrant workers and their integration into urban areas, improving China's city layouts, advancing urban agglomeration and megaregion development, and improving urbanization policies and regulations. Zhang opened by discussing the significance of promoting the urbanization process from the perspective of expanding domestic demand and enhancing economic and social development. He also described the main findings of UCI's recent report, "The 2011 Urban Sustainability Index", particularly relating to its implications for sustainable development. He stressed that we should regard migrant worker integration into cities as most important task in the next phase of China's urbanization. In regards to urban layout and physical planning, he described the future Functional Area Plan for Chinese cities, including the "two horizontal and three vertical" urbanization strategy pattern (to make Lianyungang-Urumqi channel and Yangtze channel two horizontal axis, and make coastal line, Haerbin-Beijing-Guangzhou channel and Baotou-Kunming channel three vertical axis of Urbanization zoning strategy

8/05/2012 On May 3, Gengtian Zhang, Director of Research at the Urban China Initiative (UCI), gave a lecture on how to promote healthy urbanization for the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in Sichuan Province. Most of the 100 delegates at the talk were urban planning and policy directors and professionals, mainly from the NDRC offices for Sichuan Province, Kuoquan County, and individual cities in Sichuan. Zhang's lecture described the direction and focus of urbanization development inChina, including some research results from an international perspective, and proposed how to promote healthy urban development in China's cities. The lecture focused on six main ideas critical to China's continuing urbanization, including promoting a healthy model of urban development, improving the quality of urban planning, promoting the welfare of migrant workers and their integration into urban areas, improving China's city layouts, advancing urban agglomeration and megaregion development, and improving urbanization policies and regulations. Zhang opened by discussing the significance of promoting the urbanization process from the perspective of expanding domestic demand and enhancing economic and social development. He also described the main findings of UCI's recent report, "The 2011 Urban Sustainability Index", particularly relating to its implications for sustainable development. He stressed that we should regard migrant worker integration into cities as most important task in the next phase of China's urbanization. In regards to urban layout and physical planning, he described the future Functional Area Plan for Chinese cities, including the "two horizontal and three vertical" urbanization strategy pattern (to make Lianyungang-Urumqi channel and Yangtze channel two horizontal axis, and make coastal line, Haerbin-Beijing-Guangzhou channel and Baotou-Kunming channel three vertical axis of Urbanization zoning strate

Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China 18th to 19th October 2012 The conference will comprise the academic strand - as part of the international 'Masterplanning The Future' conference. About the Academic Conference Strand: One hundred years have passed since Le Corbusier's Voyage to the Orient. Although he didn't venture into the Far East, his influence - and that of Modernism - is recognizable across the world. This conference will explore Modernism's significance in architecture and urbanism from Europe to India and the Far East. It will explore its lasting, or its fading, influences on China; and China's influence on it. But is also looks at Modernism from the Americas to Africa to Asia; we want to get as many stories of the changing face - and the new face - of "the modern" as possible. Architecture, and indeed the world, has changed massively over the last century, so this conference will explore what contemporary ideas can be drawn from different historical periods and different social circumstances. With the rapidly urbanizing conditions of India and China, what can Modernism tell us about the global urban condition? Indeed, is there such a thing? How has Modernism fared? How are architectural ideas portrayed today and what are the connections with the past? This conference is an international forum within China, bringing together researchers and experts from across the world. In this way, the exchange of ideas and experiences will stimulate a better understanding of modern and vernacular architecture, contemporary and traditional urbanism; and regionalist and universalist design ideals. Themes: Papers are welcomed to address a range of topics, which include (but are not exclusive to) the following: Modernism from the West to the East and across the world.; Modernism and the role of manifestos; Chandigarh: then and now; Metabolism; Asian development; Em

DOI: http://dx.doi.org.gate3.inist.fr/10.1016/j.landusepol.2011.11.010 [ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Jing Wang et al. Paru dans : Land Use Policy, Volume 29, Issue 4, October 2012, Pages 737-749 Abstract China has extremely scarce land resources compared to the world average. There is an urgent need for studies of the current situation and the trends in land-use change and assessment of the performance of land policies in China. Assessment of land-use change has long been hindered by a lack of accurate and reliable data. This paper uses the data obtained from the national land surveys of 1996 and land-use change surveys from 1997 to 2008, to analyze changes in land use and the policy dimension driving forces related to the changes, especially cultivated land, forestry land, grassland, as well as developed land. The aim of this analysis will be to derive the physical, social and economical driving forces of those changes to grasp the trends in land-use change and the effects of land policies and to formulate strategies for the protection and sustainable use of agricultural land. The results indicate that, although the overall change in land use was not large, cultivated land was significantly reduced and developed land rapidly increased. A great deal of high quality cultivated land was changed to developed land and low quality cultivated land generated from unused land, which has resulted in a serious threat to food supplies in China. Predictions using the methods of linear extrapolation and a BP neural network indicate that it is impossible to keep to a target of 0.12 billion hectares of cultivated land in the future under the mode of economic development used between 1996 and 2008. The results also indicate that the implementation of the laws and regulations about controlling the developed land and preserving cultivated land had significant effects on changes in land use, especially cultivated land and developed land. The results sugges

Abstract The development objective of the Gansu Qingyang Urban Infrastructure Improvement Project for China is to assist Qingyang Municipality to improve selected urban infrastructure services including urban roads and urban environmental services. There are two components to the project. The first component is urban infrastructure improvements. This component includes the following subcomponents: 1) urban bypass. This sub-component includes (i) construction of bypass roads of the southern section of Xifeng's West Ring Road and the northern section of Xifeng's East Ring Road with installation of associated pipes; (ii) construction of three connection roads to the two bypass corridors of West Ring Road and East Ring Road; 2) integrated road corridor. This sub-component includes: (i) improvement of three selected main road corridors (Nan Bei Street, Anding Dong Xi Road, West Ring Road), including road pavement, traffic channelization, and lighting and greening, along with drainage and sewage system improvements; (ii) rehabilitation of three selected backstreets and small lanes for slow traffic (Nanyuan, Tianhe and Xifeng lanes); and (iii) carrying out, as part of the design of the integrated road corridor, the parking action plan, the public transport action plan, and the traffic safety, education and enforcement action plan; 3) drainage and sewage; and 4) wastewater treatment plant. The second component is institutional strengthening and capacity building. This component includes: provision of technical assistance for: (a) carrying out of a water resource study covering, among others, for water reuse, sub-basin water environment improvements and industrial wastewater discharge licenses in Xifeng District that supports the ongoing investments of wastewater management; (b) the improvement of the operation and maintenance capabilities of Qingyang Municipal Water Supply and Sewage Company (QWSSC) and Xifeng District's Public Utility and Transportation Bureaus in the p

Sur le site "The Urban China Initiaitve" 4/05/2012 By Li Jing ( China Daily) Urban leaders do more to safeguard environment, conserve resources Small and medium-sized cities are more livable than big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai gauged by their air quality, waste treatment capacity and built environment, according to newly published research by Urban China Initiative. A woman rides a bicycle on a windy day in Beijing. According to recently published research by Urban China Initiative, Beijing and Shanghai were absent from a ranking of the top 10 Chinese cities gauged by their environmental sustainability. [Photo/China Daily] UCI, a think tank launched by Tsinghua University, McKinsey & Co and Columbia University, gauged the sustainability of 112 major Chinese cities using 17 indicators in four categories - society, economy, environment and resources. Beijing ranked first in sustainability thanks to its heavy investment in social welfare - including social security, education and healthcare - and its economic achievements. The top 10 cities in overall score - including Xiamen, Fujian province, Haikou, the capital of Hainan province, Dalian in Liaoning province, and Shanghai - are all medium and large-sized cities. However, small and medium-sized cities are taking the lead in environmental sustainability. Both Beijing and Shanghai were absent from the top 10 in this category. According to the research, Haikou has the best air quality, while Hefei, capital of Anhui province, took the lead in waste treatment facilities. And Xining, the capital of Qinghai province, boasts the best built environment - man-made surroundings that serve as the setting for human activity. "Such a result shows that small cities have a better quality of life, though people living in megacities like Beijing and Shanghai have better access to medical and educational resources," said Jonathan Woetzel, co-chair of UCI, as well as a senior global dir

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

DOI : http://dx.doi.org.gate3.inist.fr/10.1016/j.cities.2011.08.003 [ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Yungang Liu, Guanwen Yin, Laurence J.C. Ma Paru dans : Cities, Volume 29, Issue 2, April 2012, Pages 107-117 Abstract China's rapid growth over the last three decades has attracted much academic attention. In the post-reform era, economic growth has been paralleled by rapid urbanization. China's urbanization experience has been shaped heavily by the state through national urban policies as well as through local administrative means. Much has been written about large Chinese cities in the more developed coastal regions, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but little is known about the process of city-making in medium-sized and small Chinese cities, especially those in the less developed central and western regions of the country. This paper sheds light on the processes of urban transformation in Hebi, a medium-sized inland city in Henan Province, emphasizing the critical role that the local state has played in city-making, the mechanisms and processes of change, and the resultant impacts on the city. As a mining city, Hebi has been threatened by depleting natural resources. To invigorate the city, a new city center has been built to attract new enterprises. Through intensive interviews and fieldwork conducted in 2007 and 2008, we examine what the city government of Hebi has done to turn the newly constructed urban space into a new administrative and economic center of the city. With the establishment of new enterprises, the local economy has been diversified, although coal continues to be a major component of Hebi's economy. The role of the local state in the production and development of the new urban space is direct and forceful. As local state policies on urban development have been implemented by strong administrative means, we conceptualize the contemporary Chinese model of urbanization as "administrative urbanization".

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Steffen Lehmann Paru dans : Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 3, July 2012, Pages 1-12 Abstract In 2011, China announced that it has reached an urbanisation rate of 50%. If we take rapid urbanisation as a given and that it is already well underway, it is still widely unclear what research needs to be conducted and policy changes made to support municipalities of fast transforming cities and to avoid repeating the development mistakes that have occurred in industrialised nations, i.e. driving urban growth with high consumption patterns without fully considering the environmental and social needs and occupants' behaviour and aspirations. The scale and pace of change requires a solid systems approach of urban development. The purpose of this paper is to explore the rapid urbanisation of Chinese cities with a focus on the plans for a new, on-going urban sub-centre in the north-west of Shanghai: Zhenru urban sub-centre. Information-rich urbanisation is a defining feature of the 21st century, reshaping cities and communities in China and in developing countries around the world. The paper compares two cases of urban development patterns for new sub-centres for polycentric city structures: it relates to new urban sub-centres in Berlin (Germany) and Shanghai (China), and the relationship of these sub-centres to 'Network City' theory. Network theory is useful in this context as the 'network' metaphor and concepts of decentralisation seem to have replaced the 'machine' metaphor which was based on efficiency based on the availability of cheap fossil fuels. The question to be addressed is how Chinese cities can be better steered towards more sustainable models of development. As cities aim to move towards more resilient urban ecosystems and polycentric systems, the case of Potsdamer Platz Berlin, compared to Zhenru sub-centre in Shanghai, is discussed. Both are transport-oriented developments promoti

Abstract We performed a bibliometric analysis of published urbanization research from 1991 to 2009, based on SCI and SSCI database. Our analysis reveals scientific outputs, subject categories and major journals, international collaboration and geographic distribution, and temporal trends in keywords usage in urbanization studies and discusses the relationships between urbanization papers and urbanization rate and offer a substitute demonstration of research advancements, which may be considered as a potential guide for future research. The growth of article outputs has exploded since 1991, along with an increasing collaboration index, references and citations. Environmental sciences, ecology, environmental studies, geography and urban studies were most frequently used subject categories and Landscape and Urban Planning was the most productive journal in urbanization studies. The United States was the largest contributor in global urbanization research, as the USA produced the most independent and collaborative papers. The geographic distribution of urbanization articles overlapped quite well with regions with high economic growth in North America, Europe, and Pacific-Asia. A keywords analysis found the USA and China were "hotspots", confirmed land-use's significant position and revealed keen interest in ecological and environmental issues in urbanization studies. In general, urbanization research was strongly correlated with the urbanization rate although there were different patterns and underlying processes across different countries. This is the first study to quantify global research trends in urbanization. Our study reveals patterns in scientific outputs and academic collaborations and serves as an alternative way of revealing global research trends in urbanization.

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

Programmes Wider Europe Image China Image Middle East and North Africa Other projects Scorecard 2012 Reinvention of Europe Security & Defence Germany in Europe Human rights Events Poland towards France and Germany: the new opening? - 27 Jun 12 We were pleased to see you at the debate Poland towards France and Germany: the new opening? with participation of Georges Mink and Janusz Reiter. We discussed Poland's position relative to the current Franco-German dynamics. It was, and still is, of particular importance due to the growing risk of a two-speed Europe, in which Poland would definitely have to take a back seat. Go to Events page China at the crossroads: are the reformers winning the argument? China has reached a crossroads. After years of political stability and enviable economic growth, the regime has been facing a stark choice about how the country should move forward. But two crucial recent political events have turned Chinese politics on its head, and are forcing it to decide whether to regress or reform. Over the last year villagers in Wukan, in Guangdong province, rose up and ousted their corrupt local leaders after months of protest. Meanwhile, Bo Xilai, the Communist Party secretary in Chongqing, who used Maoist rhetoric and violence to push his vision of economic development, was ousted from his post in March. In a new ECFR essay, 'China at the crossroads', François Godement argues that these two events signal that the Chinese government may be choosing the path of legal and political reform, promoting sustainable growth to reduce macroeconomic imbalances and overreliance on the dollar. François argues that: With seven of the nine Politburo Standing Committee members due to be replaced this year, there has been a battle for influence with reformers warning that China is facing a 'success trap' of an economic and political model unsuited to the current stage of development, and capture by vested interests.

Abstract In 2011, China announced that it has reached an urbanisation rate of 50%. If we take rapid urbanisation as a given and that it is already well underway, it is still widely unclear what research needs to be conducted and policy changes made to support municipalities of fast transforming cities and to avoid repeating the development mistakes that have occurred in industrialised nations, i.e. driving urban growth with high consumption patterns without fully considering the environmental and social needs and occupants' behaviour and aspirations. The scale and pace of change requires a solid systems approach of urban development. The purpose of this paper is to explore the rapid urbanisation of Chinese cities with a focus on the plans for a new, on-going urban sub-centre in the north-west of Shanghai: Zhenru urban sub-centre. Information-rich urbanisation is a defining feature of the 21st century, reshaping cities and communities in China and in developing countries around the world. The paper compares two cases of urban development patterns for new sub-centres for polycentric city structures: it relates to new urban sub-centres in Berlin (Germany) and Shanghai (China), and the relationship of these sub-centres to 'Network City' theory. Network theory is useful in this context as the 'network' metaphor and concepts of decentralisation seem to have replaced the 'machine' metaphor which was based on efficiency based on the availability of cheap fossil fuels. The question to be addressed is how Chinese cities can be better steered towards more sustainable models of development. As cities aim to move towards more resilient urban ecosystems and polycentric systems, the case of Potsdamer Platz Berlin, compared to Zhenru sub-centre in Shanghai, is discussed. Both are transport-oriented developments promoting mixed-use density and less car-dependency. According to documentation of the Shanghai municipality, Zhenru urban centre, which is currently

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Steffen Lehmann Paru dans : Habitat International, Available online 4 January 2012 Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explore the rapid urbanization of Chinese cities with a focus on the plans for a new, ongoing urban sub-centre in the north-west of Shanghai: Zhenru Urban Sub-Centre. Information-rich urbanization is a defining feature of the 21st century, reshaping cities and communities in China and in developing countries around the world. The scale and pace of change requires a solid systems approach of urban development. In 2011, China announced that it has reached an urbanization rate of 50%. If we take rapid urbanization as a given and that it is already well underway, it is still widely unclear what research needs to be conducted and policy changes made to support municipalities of fast transforming cities and to avoid repeating the development mistakes that have occurred in industrialized nations, i.e. driving urban growth with high consumption patterns without fully considering the environmental and social needs and occupants' behaviour and aspirations. This paper compares two cases of urban development patterns for new sub-centres for polycentric city structures: It relates to new urban sub-centres in Berlin (Germany) and Shanghai (China), and the relationship of these sub-centres to 'Network City' theory. Network theory is useful in this context as the 'network' metaphor and concepts of decentralization seem to have replaced the 'machine' metaphor which was based on efficiency based on the availability of cheap fossil fuels. As cities aim to move towards more resilient urban ecosystems and polycentric systems, the case of Potsdamer Platz Berlin, compared to Zhenru Sub-Centre in Shanghai, is discussed. Both are transport-oriented developments promoting mixed-use density and less car-dependency. According to documentation of the Shanghai municipality, Zhenru urban centre, which is cur

China's sustained economic growth since 1978 has stimulated heated debates not only about its rise to great power status but also the sustainability of the Chinese 'model' of development and its social, economic and environmental implications at home and abroad (see e.g. Pei, 2006; Peerenboom, 2007; Bergsten et al., 2008; Zhao, 2010). One of the most important aspects of China's economic development is the accompanying rapid urbanisation. The McKinsey Global Institute (2011: 15) characterised China's urbanisation a 'massive transformation'. Although China's 12th Five-Year Plan (FYP) only sets the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate at 7% (as compared with a planned 7.5% and the actual 11.2% growth in the previous 11th FYP), the planned growth in urban population will increase by 4% per annum from 2010 to 2015, hence raising the urbanisation rate from 47.5% to 51.5% (The State Council, 2011: 10). China's growth has, however, been marked by unbalanced regional development in the past three decades as most of the coastal cities and regions are spearheading rapid growth while inland and rural areas are lagging behind. Part of this is the clear outcome of deliberate national policies in the 1980s as the coastal regions should supposedly have been championing growth for the entire country (see e.g. Yang, 1997; Lin, 1999). However, by the 1990s, there were clear concerns that such a pattern was neither sustainable nor desirable. The changing role of the Chinese state in urban and regional development is the key theme underlying this special issue. The papers assembled here address different aspects of this multifaceted process that is still unfolding. Since the launching of the reform and open door policy in 1978, China has embarked upon the transition from a planned economy to a more market-oriented system that is increasingly integrated with the global capitalist economy. Decentralisation of economic policy powers from Beijing to local governments at the

4/09/2012 The Urban China Initiative (UCI) had its biggest event of the year on September 7th in Tsinghua Science Park - the 2012 Annual Forum, inspiring enlightening discussions among participants from public, private and academic sectors to develop policy thinking that will help address China's urbanization challenges. Themed "China's New Urban Era" as China's urban population surpassed that of rural areas for the first time in 2011, the event brought together about 50 urban leaders and more than 400 professionals from the urban field. The Forum consists of keynote speech, three plenary panels and three breakout panels. Keynote speakers include: Yang Weimin, Vice Minister of office of Central Leading Group on Finance and Economic Affairs; Gu Shengzu, Deputy Director of Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee at National People's Congress and Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the China National Democratic Construction Association; Li Xiaojiang, President of China Academy of Urban Planning and Design; Li Dongming, General Manager, Urban Fund of China Development Bank Capital. The plenaries showcased three UCI flagship projects: urban citizenship of Chinese migrants; research on mega regions and the China urban indicators system. The three breakouts showcased UCI's five latest grant projects. The forum brought together leaders from UCI partners including the National Development and Reform Commission, local DRC, China Society of Urban Studies, Development and Research Center of the State Council, China Center for Urban Development, China Development and Reform Foundation, Chinese Academy of Urban Planning and Design, Chinese Academy of Urban Development, Fung Global Institute, New Cities Foundation, Rio Tinto, BMW, CDBC, Tsinghua, Columbia Global Centers and CITIC Property. To find more about the Forum: Highlights of the keynotes and forum news Research and speeches of the plenary and breakout panels Media report on UCI 2012 Ann