Re-building Regulation and Re-inventing Governance in the Pearl River Delta, China

Abstract

Theorists often engage with arguments concerning restructuring post-reform Chinese cities and regions. Their works are quite persuasive about how the Chinese state has experienced an irreversible process of decentralisation and market reform. Nonetheless, these studies expose a number of domains in which such unidirectional analysis could conceivably be enhanced. Reflecting on two cases in the Pearl River Delta, the article has developed a new theoretical perspective to interpret China's state restructuring. Instead of treating the state simply as an internally coherent and unidirectionally transformed system, the state has become a contested terrain under dramatic re-configuration.

理论研究者常常就改革开放后中国城市和地区的重构争论不休。其论著雄辩地指出中国经历了不可逆转的分权和市场化改革。然而从这些研究中也可以看出，在一些领域内，这种单向研究大有改进的余地。本文探讨珠江三角洲的两个案例，从中找出新的理论视角，来解读中国的国家重构。本文没有将国家视为内部统一、方向一致的转型体系，而是将之视为正在经历巨变的竞赛场。

Keywords:

• State restructuring
• regional governance
• Pearl River Delta
• China

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China for providing funding to support this research (General Research Funds, project code: CUHK453609).