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Learning from Taiyuan: Chinese Cities as Urban Sustainability
Laboratories
Piper Gaubatz , Dean Hanink
PII: S2666-6839(20)30027-4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2020.06.004
Reference: GEOSUS 19
To appear in: Geography and Sustainability
Received date: 31 January 2020
Revised date: 25 May 2020
Accepted date: 24 June 2020
Please cite this article as: Piper Gaubatz , Dean Hanink , Learning from Taiyuan: Chi-
nese Cities as Urban Sustainability Laboratories, Geography and Sustainability (2020), doi:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2020.06.004
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Learning from Taiyuan: Chinese Cities as Urban Sustainability Laboratories
Authors Names and Affiliations:
1) Piper Gaubatz (corresponding author) Department of Geosciences, University of
Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA (gaubatz@geo.umass.edu)
2) Dean Hanink, Department of Geography, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06209, USA
(dean.hanink@uconn.edu)
Comment [ZZZ1]:
is the name of the
University. The Postal Address requires
in Massachusetts.
2
Highlights:
China aspires to global leadership in sustainable urban innovation.
The pace, scale, and governance of Chinese cities are well-suited to natural experiments.
Chinese urban sustainability practices are relevant to cities in the developing world.
Abstract
This essay considers Chinas emerging role as a laboratory for innovation in achieving
urban sustainability. Its purpose is to highlight, in the context of the Sino-American Symposium
on Future Issues Affecting Quality of Life, aspects of Chinese urbanization which contribute to
Chinas increasing global significance as a site for natural experiments in urban sustainability.
Such experiments are relevant not only to the future quality of life in China, but also to the
growing number of countries participating in development partnerships with China. The essay
begins with an overview of urban sustainability and Chinas particular urban challenges. We
then focus on three aspects of Chinese urbanization which stand out as distinct in fostering urban
innovation and in serving as appropriate laboratories for the development of innovative practices
in urban sustainability for the global south— the pace, scale and governance of urbanization.
We use examples from the city of Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, to ground the discussion in a
specific place, while acknowledging that, although Taiyuan serves well to illustrate many key
points, it is only one case and cannot serve as a basis of generalization about China as a whole.
3
Keywords: Sustainable urbanization, Urban geography, Urban systems, Belt-and-Road
Initiative, Taiyuan
Declaration of interests
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal
relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the Timothy Light Center for Chinese Studies of Western Michigan
University, and Professor Timothy Light, for inviting us to participate in this project.
4
1. Introduction
Taiyuan, a large city at the heart of Chinas primary coal-mining region, was named one
of the worlds top ten most polluted cities by the Asian Development Bank in 2013 (Staedter,
2013). In 2017, residents of this large city were stunned by a near-total ban on the use of coal by
both individuals and businesses within the city. The October 1, 2017 ban on coal use came as air
pollution in this city reached new highs. The story of this city's grappling with both the
problems and the possibilities introduced by rapid growth and new connections with the global
economy offers illustrates the prospects for cities in China and across the globe in the 21st
century. Environmental challenges can be severe in Chinese cities such as Taiyuan, but broad-
ranging remediation and counter-measures can be deployed relatively quickly. In the context of
the Sino-American Symposium on Future Issues Affecting Quality of Life, we provide an
overview of the potential for Chinese cities to serve as a testing ground for new approaches to
sustainable urban development. We illustrate our observations with short vignettes from the
experience of Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province.
1
The global literature on urban planning and, more recently, urban sustainability, has long
been dominated by research and examples from the global North, especially North America and
Europe (Wu, 2015). Case studies from China, however, have become common in many different
professional publications. Would developing countries in the global South be better served to
adopt Chinese innovations in order to achieve sustainable urban development? Our purpose in
writing this essay is to consider distinctive aspects of Chinese urban development that might
1
Taiyuan to provide concrete illustrations of broad concepts.
Comment [GeoSus2]: I checked the
news. Heavy fog had very close
relationship with the car pileup crash.
While, air pollution may not the only reason
for the heavy fog or car crash.
Could you remove this sentence please?
Comment [GeoSus3]: These kinds of
words
for scientific paper. Some readers may
believe that this is racial discrimination.
Comment [ZZZ4]: I ha ve removed this,
but please note: (1) this was a direct quote,
not my own words. (2) native speakers of
English would be unlikely to associate this
5
contribute new approaches appropriate to furthering the worlds quest for sustainability. Given
that Chinas environmental and sustainability challenges have been well-documented, and there
are numerous published case-studies of Chinas experiments with sustainable development, we
neither provide a comprehensive summary of that research, nor add new research to those
growing bodies of literature, but rather offer a framework for understanding the utility of those
bodies of knowledge. We focus on three particulary relevant areas of distinction: the pace of
urbanization, the scale of urbanization, and urban governance and policy.
The essay begins with an overview of key topics the characteristics of Chinese cities in
a global context, the potential for Chinese cities to serve as the locus for natural experiments, a
brief discussion of urban sustainability, and a brief overview of specific sustainability challenges
faced by Chinese cities. The second section presents our three themes: pace of urbanization,
scale of urbanization, and urban governance. The final section discusses the challenges and
possibilities in thinking of China as a global urban laboratory in the context of those three
themes. To offer continuity and grounding of the discussion in a real place, we begin most
sections with a short illustrative vignette from the city of Taiyuan and/or the surrounding region.
2. Chinese cities and Urban Sustainability
2.1 Positioning Chinese cities in global context
Although cities take up about two percent of the worlds land area, their significance and
impact are huge: more than half the population lives in cities, and this proportion is
expected to rise to about two-thirds by 2050. Seventy percent of the worlds GDP is generated by
cities, but cities also are responsible for about 70% of the worlds waste, 70% of the greenhouse
gas emissions, and about 60% of global energy consumption (United Nations Habitat Program,
6
2016). Not only are cities significant in planning for sustainability, but Chinese cities, in
particular, are significant. More than one in ten people living on earth today lives in a Chinese
city, and one in five urban dwellers lives in a Chinese city. Chinas urban population, more than
800 million people, is larger than the total population of Europe and is about 2.5 times the total
population of the United States (World Bank, 2019). Considering this sheer weight of numbers,
the multiplier effects of Chinas approach to urban planning, management and development not
only in China but also as an export to more than 60 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America,
and the growing influence of China on the global economy, the future of Chinese cities will have
a major impact on global efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals adopted by the
United Nations in 2015 (Bryan et al., 2018; Cheng and Ge, 2020; Xu et al., 2020). China is both
one of the worlds largest emitters of greenhouse gases (Fleming, 2019), and at the same time, a
key contributor to global efforts to achieve sustainability (Huang et al, 2015, 2016; Sun et al,
2018; Xu et al., 2020).
The speed of Chinas urbanization and its coincident shift from a rural economy to one
based in cities is remarkable (Gaubatz, 1999; Wu and Gaubatz, 2013; Wu et al., 2014; Huang et
al., 2015, 2016; Li et al., 2019). In 1960 only 16 percent of Chinas population, or about 107
million people, lived in cities; that proportion had increased marginally but was still less than 18
percent when Chinas era of economic reform commenced in 1978. Since that time, however,
the urban proportion of the country's population has more than tripled: rising to 38 percent by
2002 and nearly 60 percent today (World Bank, 2019). Nearly every city in China has
experienced extremely rapid urban growth, with growth in sheer numbers of residents
particularly significant in the eastern region, and expanding development, or sprawl, especially
significant in small- and medium-sized cities in the central and western regions (Gao et al.,
Comment [GeoSus5]: Please provide
references
Comment [GeoSus6]: Please provide
references
7
2016). This transition from rural to urban has accompanied Chinas transition from an economy
and society largely cut-off from the global community to one of its major power players. As
China becomes increasingly connected to the rest of the world, the Chinese approach to a wide
range of urban and environmental issues, from transportation planning to migration policies
matters at all scales, from local to global.
China has made a firm commitment to the global effort to achieve sustainability through
improving the environment. In 2015, China identified nine areas of particular priority for
implementing the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, from
safeguarding equity and social justice to protecting the environment and addressing climate
change. Key among these is a pledge to coordinate development between urban and rural areas
and among the three dimensions of sustainable development (United Nations, 2016). Chinas
to sustainability throughout the countries where Chinese development projects have been
deployed as part of Chinas Belt and Road initiative.
2.2 A natural home for natural experiments
A couple of hours drive from Taiyuan stands the village of Dazhai, Shanxi, once a
commune made internationally-famous in the 1960s by Chairman Maos Learn from Dazhai in
Agriculture campaign. The designation of exemplary models and experiments has been a key
8
facet of Chinese development practice throughout the history of the PRC. During the early
years, exemplary communes and enterprises, such as the Dazhai commune and the Daqing coal
mine, were praised as models to be emulated. Widespread propaganda-campaigns extolling their
accomplishments served not only as a means of translating the states development goals into
local-level aspirational models but also as a way to disseminate planning practices and models
(in this case, in agriculture and rural development) (Meisner, 1978; Zhang and Wei, 2011;
Brehm and Svensson, 2020). Such models have become fundamental instruments for supporting
Chinese political, economic, and social goals, as well as serving as a mechanism for
benchmarking success in meeting those goals (Brehm and Svensson, 2020). In the first
decades after the founding of the People's Republic of China, industrial development was the
primary mechanism for urban planning and development (Wu, 2015). The central government
supported 156 large-scale industrial projects in the first Five Year Plan (1953—1957); ten of
these were located in Taiyuan and played a significant role in setting the basic framework for
future expansion of the city (Wang, 2002). Although there was little urban planning in the
conventional sense in China before the start of the Reform Era at the end of the 1970s (Wu,
2015), the legacy of the exemplary model-focused campaigns of the 1960s and core projects
established by the central state can be seen in contemporary urban planning. China has deployed
a number of "model,
economic reform at the end of the 1970s, focused on establishing model communities to be
emulated throughout the country (Canon, 2005; Gaubatz, 2008). This began with the designation
controlled experiments with new economic models for a wide range of functions, from
9
production to global trade. A plethora of experimental zone policies has followed, from
Economic and Technological Development Zones to Science Parks, High-Technology Parks, and
International Business Incubators. National-level programs were mimicked by provincial and
municipal programs, and experimental zones proliferated by the thousands, ultimately earning a
new nickname for their creation— Cartier, 2001; Wu, 2015)
commitment to achieving environmental sustainability during the Reform Era has sparked a
National Garden Cities in 1990 to the Zero-Waste Cities program announced in 2019. As in the
s, green/eco-city projects have proliferated during the 21st century with
well over 250 cities claiming a green/eco-city project (Table 1; Wu, 2015).
Another way to interpret these programs, however, is as a wholehearted engagement with
xperiments in this case, in the fields of economic
is an experiment which is deployed within a
Unlike the laboratory or RCT, in a natural experiment, it is not possible to generate a true control
sample, nor is it possible to control all of the variables. In essence, they are observational studies
that t the outcomes are compared with
places/situations in which the experiment was not deployed. Historians of science often point to
a mid-19th century London cholera epidemic as one of the first
applications of the natural experiment method (Dunning, 2008, 2012; Leatherdale, 2019).
Despite the fact that a natural experiment, by definition, takes place outside of a controlled
laboratory environment, it has become common to refer to organized efforts to analyze and
understand the urban environment through natural experiment research
10
nd the University of
The UN Habitat program also has an initiative fostering
problems, throughout the world (Krebs, 2016).
In these contexts, we argue that over the course of the past 70 years, China has developed
an approach to urban planning and development that emphasizes the use of urban experimental
models and pilot projects in fostering innovation. In regard to urban ecology, this has been
-inspired, transdisciplinary philiosphy for studying and managing
urban systems Thus, when China engaged
with the new global concern with sustainability (see below), it was well-prepared to become a
primary locus for experimentation in new, sustainability-oriented approaches.
2.3 urban sustainability challenges
Taiyuan, once a Dragon
Cthe site of one first major environmental protection conferences in 1978
(Edmonds, 1994; Fig. 1). Yet in the 21st century, it is perhaps best known as an example of
extreme environmental degradation. Resource-production cities,
, 2016). While the resource cities were
far from the centers o
for energy and resources accelerated
11
readily accessible fuel-
(Wang et al., 2020). With its location near the center of a province which derives 70% of its
GDP from coal, iron and steel production, and chemical manufacturing, and supplies nearly a
has been severely degraded. The city
its groundwater, the
primary source of drinking water, was contaminated, and there were high concentrations of
heavy metals in the soil south of the city (Morgenstern, et al, 2005; Liu et al, 2014; Falke, 2016;
Li et al., 2018). By the end of the twentieth century, these problems were widely acknowledged,
and an ongoing struggle to overcome this environmental degradation began through a complex
and ever-changing coalition of local, provincial and state government efforts and partnerships
with a wide range of international actors, such as the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank,
and the United Nations.
As in the case of Taiyuan, the rapid pace of change and the vast expansion of the Chinese
urban system pose many challenges for sustainability. Many
though others stand out as relatively
unique. The OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), for example,
lists a series of challenges facing China in its continued urbanization, including an over-reliance
the problem of dual (migrant and native) labor markets and other, related, forms of
discrimination; environmental and resource challenges, such as pollution and agricultural land
conversion; and the need for better planning, which should more consistently anticipate urban
problems rather than ignore them or only address them after the damage occurred (OECD, 2015).
To this list we add environmental challenges such as management and mitigation of solid waste
Comment [ZZZ7]: Note I rejected the
change here (deletion of south) because
meaning.
12
and water (both flooding and water supply), mitigation of climate change-related hazards, and
rising energy requirements, economic challenges such as dual labor markets and the need for
infrastructure to support development, and a range of social challenges, from socio-spatial,
economic and gender inequality to public safety, health care, and delivery of social services
(McGranahan et al., 2007; Chan and Yao, 2008; Jiang, 2009; Chen and Lees, 2018; Huang et al.,
2019). Table 2 summarizes these in the context of the three pillars of sustainability.
3 Conditions for urban experiments: pace, scale and governance
In consideration of the role China can play in providing a robust set of natural
experiments for building sustainable urbanism, we focus on three aspects of Chinese
urbanization, and the urban governance system.
3.1 Pace: rapid urban growth and the Chinese economy
Taiyuan grew from about 1.1 million registered residents in 1980 to 2.5 million in 2000,
and nearly 4 million today, with an economy driven by its dual roles as the capital of Shanxi
Province and the heart of a major coal-mining region. Although rates of energy consumption
had grown slower than GDP in China between 1980 and 2000, the 2001 entry of China into the
ensified, bringing a
rapid deterioration of air quality and other environmental hazards (Tang et al., 2014; Fig. 2).
13
Rapid urban growth and rapid increases in environmental hazards have occurred in many
Chinese cities. In China as a whole, the urban population grew from about 107 million people in
1960 (18 percent
percent of its population) while its per capita GDP grew in real terms from about 1,483 Chinese
Yuan to more than 56,382 Yuan (in constant units) during the same period (World Bank, 2019;
Fig. 3). Much of this growth occurred after the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, when
city dwellers accounted for only 35% of the population.
T i
manufacturing and services increasing to about 92 percent as agriculture,
forestry, etc.) share declined from nearly 27 percent to about eight percent from 1990 to 2017
(NBS, 2019). Sect
manufacturing and later toward services, have been typical of economic change in many
countries in their economic development (e.g. Fisher, 1939). In most countries, however, the
process was driven by demand shifts initiated by income-raising productivity increases in
agriculture, and then higher productivity and higher incomes in manufacturing in an historical,
typically long-term process. The shifts were rapidly accelerated in China, however, by two
policy actions. The first was a series of reforms initiated in 1978 that
eventually altered the structure of agricultural production and modernized and reorganized
industry in ways that greatly improved productivity and eventually enabled profit-making and
privatization.
Organization (WTO) in 2001. China was a successful exporter before its membership in the
WTO, but that membership had an impact in changing the destinations and composition of its
exports. Soon after its membership commenced, its leading true export market (excluding Hong
14
Kong) switched from Japan to the United States, and its leading export sector changed from
consumer goods to capital goods (World Bank, 2019). To a great degree, the shift from
agriculture to manufacturing in China was driven by export markets rather than income gains
of export-led
growth in other countries.
manufacturing and services, in its economic focus corresponded to a shift in an aggregate
production function of diminishing returns to scale of production:
Q = A Lα Kβ, α+β < 1, (1)
where Q is output, A is total factor productivity, L is labor, K
elasticities associated with the labor and capital factors, respectively, toward an aggregate
production function with increasing returns:
Q = A Lα Kβ, α+β > 1. (2)
considerably by the reforms. The labor supply for manufacturing, in particular, was increased
(Lewis,
1954), and rural-to-
(Xing and Zhang, 2017). Capital formation was greatly enhanced by the inflow of private capital
and also by government subsidies to production.
An increase in the sum of the elasticities, α+β, likely resulted from the economies of
scale, or agglomeration economies, realized from growing spatial concentrations of
industrialization in selected cities that yielded increasing internal economies of scale (Krugman,
1991), as well as external localization economies achieved by sharing specialized technology,
15
labor, and services. Further, increasing city sizes yield external urbanization economies of scale
due to access to concentrations of infrastructure, education, and knowledge in general
(Henderson, 1999, 2009).
Population and economic growth are not the only aspects of rapid change in Chinese
cities. From physical form to eating habits, nearly every aspect of urban life has changed over
the past forty years. Cities that once boasted few structures over two-stories tall are now home to
urban residents who once prized bicycles as the best
transport option now drive cars or ride ultra-modern mass transit. Obesity and old age are now
significant challenges in cities that faced food shortages in living memory and whose life
expectancy has increased dramatically in recent years. The speed of these changes — especially
in the 21s century — is familiar to the experience of cities in the global South but alien to most
cities in Europe and North America.
two advantages as a locus for natural
experiments in sustainability. First, to the extent that sustainability planning is often a particular
challenge in rapidly expanding cities, where development outpaces planning and regulation,
experimentation within the context of rapid change is appropriate to the experience of many
contemporary cities in the global South. Second, the rapid pace of development in China means
that experiments can be deployed, refined, re-deployed, and analyzed much more rapidly than is
possible in slower-growth contexts. This accelerated pace of change, in general, and project
implementation, in particular, generates a laboratory-style ability to conduct real-world trials of
planning experiments.
Comment [ZZZ8]: Note
see, for
example, the MLA and Chicago Manual of
Style cited at https://style.mla.org/styling-
geographic-terms/
16
3.2 Scale: city-size and growth
-coast centers of engagement with the global economy
and the massive rural-to-urban migration flows which have accompanied it. Yet, by 2007, at
was composed of migrants working in
construction, manufacturing, and the service sector (Li et al, 2009). The unprecedented pace of
Chinese urbanization has been complemented by an unprecedented scale in terms of both the
urban system as a whole and the size of individual cities (McKinsey, 2009; Farrell and Nijkamp,
2019).
This growth has occurred primarily as a result of internal rural-to-urban migration and the
reclassification of once-rural land to urban (Liu et al.,
planning law, which called for strict controls on urban population growth in large cities
largest cities and provincial capitals, in particular, have swelled to accommodate migrants and
new economic activities. In fact, although there is growth at all levels of the urban hierarchy, the
largest cities in China (>10 million population) are growing at a significantly faster rate than
small and medium-sized cities (Lin, 2007; Hsing, 2010; Farrell and Nijkamp, 2019). Systems of
urban classification also contribute to national-level planning and management of the urban
system.
3.2.1 Size Matters: The Official Chinese City Classification System
er-
17
-
city classification schemes may be merely conveniences or analytical tools in other countries, in
China such classifications often lead to real differences in access to economic and policy support
for development, as well as in influencing investment preferences within the domestic and
international business communities. In this sense, the classification schemes provide a strong
representation of the Chinese urban system and its future prospects. They also mean that
experimentation in new urban sustainability practices can be linked specifically to different sizes
and types of cities. Three classification systems in common use include 1) the Chinese
g to population size, GDP, and political status, and 3)
the future-
planned urban system, which would be topped by a new class of cities.
official classification system for cities was changed in 2014 to accommodate the
The new system creates three classes of cities, by size,
above the two million mark. This new approach includes, in addition to the population within
officially--up areas of surrounding
, and includes people who have lived as registered
inhabitants of the city for at least six months. According to this scheme, the 2010 census yields
three cities with populations -
Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen.
populations of 510 million, T5 million
(including Taiyuan), and forty-Tpopulations of 13 million (Qi et
al, 2016).
18
These official designations of size are key because Chinese policies and central state
investment apply differently to cities in different size classes. For example, a number of central
state programs have been aimed at fostering development in officially-designated small and
medium-sized cities. For example, the National Urbanization
Development and Reform Commission in April 2019 provided for removal of residency
restrictions for migrants to cities smaller than 3 million people, and relaxation of restriction in
cities with populations between 35 million. This easing of restrictions, tied directly to city size,
would make it easier for rural-to-urban migrants to access social services and other benefits of
urban residence in those cities (Ouyang, 2019).
3.2.2 China’s Urban Tiers
Taiyuan is commonly referred to as a second or third-tier city. Chinese cities are
unofficially ranked by the business and policy communities in tiers based on multiple factors.
Most typically the cities are classed into four tiers, on the basis of a combination of 1) Gross
Domestic Product (GDP), 2) Political/Administrative level, such as cities directly under the
central government Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing), provincial capitals, prefectural
capitals, and county-level cities, 3) population of the metropolitan area, eg, >15 million, 315
million, 150,0003 million, and <150,000. The tier rank is an average of the rankings in each of
these categories. In this system, Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou
constitute the first-tier. Whereas much of the east coast of China and the North China plain
comprise solid zones of second and third-tier settlements, Taiyuan is ranked as a second-tier city
surrounded by fourth-tier cities. The only other second-tier city completely surrounded by
fourth-tier cities is Chengdu, Sichuan. The rest of the second (and first) tier cities are contiguous
19
with second and third-tier cities. This suggests the relative isolation of Taiyuan as a large city
surrounded by an extensive, mountainous coal-mining region (SCMP, 2016). At the same time,
it suggests that Taiyuan may be perceived as a more desirable location for investment and
business operations than the surrounding cities.
The tier system, like the official size classification system, may translate into real
differences in access to investment. The tier system is ultimately a framework within the
business community for directing and re-directing investment funds. Recently, for example,
there has been much discussion in the international business literature about the lower-tier cities,
China as the upper tiers become saturated (Morgan Stanley, 2018; Carter, 2019; Shiao, 2019).
This recent interest in third- and fourth-tier investment may ultimately dovetail with the central
governments interest in dispersing development toward the small- and medium-sized cities.
3.2.3 Future scale: China’s aspirational city cluster plan
national urbanization plan of
2014, while supporting the idea of redistributing investment and development to small and
medium-sized cities, also lays out a future trajectory for the Chinese urban system which is
—urban megaregions with coordinated economic and
infrastructure development. Most of these are named after several cities or a geographic region,
such as the Chengdu-Chongqing cluster or the Pearl River Delta cluster. Taiyuan is the only
In this scenario, Taiyuan
would eventually develop into a massive urban region on equal-footing with other super-regions
20
of urbanization and economic activity. This new class of cities would take advantage of
economies of scale in equalizing the distribution of resources between the large existing
conurbations of eastern China and emerging new conurbations in the interior and western
regions. As in the official classifications of cities by size, the designation of massive urban
clusters will also influence and direct development funds, both from the state and from business,
as well as planning activity. It will also provide a concrete and systematic way to experiment
with urban mega-regions similar to those developing in other parts of the world.
Ultimately, the organization of the Chinese urban system into different schemes on the
basis of size, whether in terms of population, land area, or economy intersects with urban
planning and governance systems that likewise operate within a system of spatial scales.
3.3 Governance: national, regional, and metropolitan planning policies
In February 2018, Taiyuan one of first three
National Sustainable Development Innovation Demonstration Zones
Guilin. These first three of ten demo
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This designation
illustrates the continued role of the central state and national urban planning policies in
promoting urban innovation.
The global movement toward sustainable development, including the New Urban Agenda
-
level urban planning as a path toward success in achieving sustainable urban development.
21
or partial national urban policies (UN Habitat, 2014; OECD, 2016; OECD/UN Habitat, 2018).
Although the Chinese planning and administrative structure has significantly decentralized
during the Reform Era, national plans remain powerful drivers of local action, and the support of
the central state is still key in implementing large-scale projects (Wu, 2015).
Two aspects of Chinese national planning are worth noting as relevant to the
implementation of natural experiments in urban sustainability. First, Chinese national planning
strategies engage directly with using urban development to address regional and urban-rural
imbalances in development. National spatial planning in China addresses both inter-regional and
rural-urban imbalances, but inter-regional planning has a much longer history of emphasis (The
Economist, 2019). Soon after the inauguration of the Reform Era at the end of the 1970s, China
embarked upon a national development strategy that strongly favored the development of the
would lead the entire country to greater prosperity. By the late 1990s, however, it was clear that
some regions were lagging behind. A succession of new national programs to re-direct resources
at a regional scale was deployed, such as the policy (1999), and the
policy (2004). The current development policy also
encourages urban development in Western and Central China, largely through integrating those
areas more closely with Eastern China and by promoting the growth of smaller and medium-
sized cities, rather than concentrating on already large centers (MLIT, 2017).
At the same time, recent reforms aimed at reducing rural-urban imbalances in China are
also foster experimentation. During the reform era, several hundred million rural Chinese have
22
migrated to cities, which has had massive impacts on both cities and the countryside. A recent
national priority on rural poverty alleviation has brought these issues to the forefront of national-
scale priorities. At the local scale, rural-urban planning in the interest of local economic balance
is relatively new in China, although it has been ongoing in Shanghai since the 1980s, and in
Chengdu and Chongqing since 2003 (Li and Fang, 2018; Chen et al., 2019). Chinese cities often
have the advantage of administering a surrounding rural area in addition to the urbanized area
itself. (In comparison, for example, the contiguous urbanized areas of the United States are
typically fragmented into multiple distinct jurisdictions). This administrative structure provides
an opportunity with experimentation in more sustainable urban-rural relationships. In the city of
Taiyuan, multiple administrative bodies are tasked with both urban and rural administration, such
as the Taiyuan Urban and Rural Planning Bureau, the Taiyuan Urban and Rural Administration
Committee, and the Taiyuan Urban and Rural Bureau of Law Enforcement. With unified urban-
2020) called
for limits on the downtown population, and an urban growth boundary designed to preserve
agricultural land (Taiyuan, 2020).
3.4 China as an urban laboratory
At a national scale, the contemporary Chinese approach to sustainable urbanization is
characterized by fast pace and adaptability, building on economies of scale, and using
governance systems to support experimental development.
sustainability in its urban system the largest in the world will have far-reaching
Comment [ZZZ9]: Rejected wording
23
implications and relevance for global efforts toward sustainable urban systems, not only to the
very real extent that a more sustainable China will contribute to more sustainable global
environmental systems, but also in the use of Chinese-style development as a model for urban
and infrastructural development, especially in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. China was
relatively exceptional in the pre-reform era, and thus may not have served as an appropriate
model. But with increasing globalization and global influence, what happens in China is
becoming increasingly relevant to global efforts to achieve sustainable urban systems.
From the landmark national environmental conference held in Taiyuan in 1978, to the
declaration of the Taiyuan National-Level Innovative Sustainable Development Zone in 2019,
Taiyuan has been the site of both severe environmental degradation and social and economic
hardship and creative efforts to solve these problems. While proposed solutions do not always
succeed, and Taiyuan continues to struggle between the desire for rapid economic growth and
the need to control that growth for the sake of environment and society, Taiyuan, as all of China,
continues to serve as a testing ground for remediation and innovation.
Urban experiments have already been deployed in a l (Table
1). Because China has the fiscal and political capacity to implement new development and new
policy quite rapidly, it has proven to be an effective testing ground for cutting edge sustainable
technologies, policies, and practices. For example, the idea of building a comprehensive and
sustainable -
have been successful, each has contributed to the growing body of knowledge regarding what
Eco-city project, touted as the
24
-
after it was initially announced due to a lack of political support, disagreement over financing,
and mismanagement (Wu and Gaubatz, 2013). But the experience of Dongtan led to more careful
nurturing of political alliances for the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City (SSTEAC) project.
SSTEAC was begun at about the same time as Dongtan, and planned for a similar size.
Sustainable development is a complex undertaking involving careful linkages between political,
economic, social, and ecological systems. While not perfect, the SSTEAC project, with its high-
level political partnerships, fostered success in the political and economic realms and has served
as a model for similar projects (Wu, 2015).
to managing the urban system may be instructive, in particular, for the developing world.
Although China has devolved power and resources from the central government to provincial,
urban and district governments during the Reform Era, nonetheless the ability of the central
government to designate places for accelerated investment and special policies remains a
powerful force in efforts to manage a massive and rapidly growing and changing urban system.
-planning and development
projects is vast and encompasses all scales of government, an array of public-private
partnerships, and many different sectors of the private economy. Although there can be
significant implementation gaps between plans and development, implementation of projects
which contribute to overarching goals, such as meeting the U.N. sustainability targets, can be
surprisingly quick.
25
4 Conclusion
Like many Chinese cities, Taiyuan is engaged in an extended struggle for sustainability
that directly engages with the rapid pace and scale of urban development and the need for
effective governance. It is trapped between the need for rapid development and its deleterious
consequences and a desire for forward-thinking, innovative solutions. It has one of the most in-
demand bike-share systems in the country, and has followed a course of rapid and often
innovative development in a wide range of sectors, from industrial location to transportation. Yet
on days when the air pollution level is higher than the norm, such as the day poor visibility due
to air pollution led to the catastrophic 2015 highway crash, bike-share use declines dramatically
(Li and Kamargianni, 2018). This illustrates the need for a complex, multi-faceted set of
policies and practices to achieve sustainability goals.
many Chinese cities, will serve as a natural experiment to inform planning for urban
sustainability. Failures and successes can both contribute to the development and strengthening
of effective models for sustainable urban development. China has committed to both increasing
sustainable practices and pursuing unprecedented urban and economic development strategies
both at home and abroad. The ways in which China approaches the broad range of sustainability
challenges it faces will have far-reaching and lasting impacts on the fate of cities and urban
citizens throughout the world. So too, will China-standing experience of disseminating
knowledge through pilot programs, demonstration projects, and designated exemplars.
China is currently engaged in a massive and rapid expansion of its influence across Asia,
Africa, and Latin America through it (BRI). More than sixty
countriesd thousands of cities, will be
26
influenced directly The BRI represents a
meteoric rise in connections between China and the world. Even in Taiyuan, a city removed
reach well beyond industrial investment, from a program to host scholarship students from the
BRI countries at
Exchange.
efforts to manage urban networks may be one its most influential exports to economies emerging
during this era of heightened awareness of environment and equity. Chinese planners, designers,
economists, and other experts have engaged in efforts to generate effective urban networks
throughout the BRI countries. Many of these projects follow models first tested in China. It will
take time to determine whether or not they can succeed in the myriad of different economic,
environmental, political, social, and cultural contexts of the BRI countries.
domestic challenges may be as instructive as its successes in
bringing about increased global sustainability in urban development. The BRI is particularly
focused on the improvement of transportation, energy, and other infrastructure to facilitate trade
and global manufacturing networks, such as gas and oil pipelines, railroad development, and port
improvements. Jin most
measures of development despite continuing efforts to foster development in cities below the top
tier, the improvements in transportation and other infrastructure networks through the BRI may
foster increasing concentrations of development and growth in the largest cities in the BRI
countries, as connectivity improvements generate spatial concentration of economic activity
(Frankopan, 2017; Shier, 2018; Gill et al., 2019). Taiyuan is only one of many Chinese cities
27
engaging in knowledge-sharing with BRI countries, from hosting conferences to providing
education opportunities
mechanism for disseminating knowledge about sustainability planning by
example .
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Figures:
(High resolution files shared separately with editor)
Figure. 1. Taiyuan at Night, January 2019
By WFan - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82773323
39
Figure. 2. Smoggy Taiyuan, 2011
By Francisco Anzola - Smoggy Taiyuan, CC BY 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32182447
40
Figure. -2018. Source: Worldbank 2019b.
41
Table:
Table 1. National-level Environment-focused Model Cities Programs. Source: Adapted from
Riva and Henaut 2016; Huang et al. 2016; MEE 2020).
Year announced/
Time Period
Name of Program
1980
National Civilized City
1986
National Pioneer Demonstration Zone in Sustainable Development
1990
National Garden City
1990
National Hygienic City
1990s
Green City
1995
Eco-demonstration Community
1997
National Environmental Protection Model City
2003
Eco-county, Eco-city and Eco-province
2004
National Ecological-garden city
2007
National Healthy City
2008
Low-carbon City
2008
National Ecoogical Civilization Pilot Demonstration Zone
2010
Low-carbon Eco-city
2013
National Ecological Civilization Pioneer Demonstration Zone
2015
Sponge City initiative
2016
National Sustainable Development Innovation-Demonstration Zones
2019
Zero Waste Cities Pilot Program
42
2013; OECD 2015; Guardian 2017; United Nations 2016 and 2019.
Environmental Challenges
Economic Challenges
Social Challenges
Environmental pollution
Over-reliance on export
markets, cheap labor and
cheap land
Discrimination (migrants v.
locals) in labor market
Agricultural land conversion
Dual labor markets (migrant
and local)
Socio-spatial/economic
inequality
Urban sprawl
Need for infrastructure to
support economic growth
Growing elderly population
Solid waste management
Housing supply
Need for institutional
capacity and resilience
Flooding/water supply
Need to coordinate urban and
rural development
Public safety
Extreme weather events and
other climate-change related
hazards
Resource management
Health care
Rising energy requirements
Delivery of social services
Domestic labor migration
43
Graphical Abstract
