Global financial networks, municipal offshore financing and state-sponsored city-regional development

ABSTRACT

The municipal government in China has engaged deeply in offshore financing to lever local development projects. However, what is the role of the central government in this process? This paper answers this question by considering the central government’s dual role: as a stakeholder in city-regional development and as a financial regulator determining unequal access to financial markets among market actors. We argue that the Chinese central state has sponsored certain city-regions to develop by privileging the municipal government’s access to global financial markets to lever local entrepreneurial strategy. The state’s geopolitical/geoeconomic self-interests have underpinned the geographical inequality in municipal offshore financing.

KEYWORDS:

• city-regionalism
• geopolitics
• global financial networks
• strategical coupling
• municipal financing

JEL:

• R5

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We sincerely thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their insightful suggestions on this paper. We are also grateful to the interviewees and those who helped us with the fieldwork.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Infrastructure in this paper broadly refers to the physical facilities that make productive and business activity possible, including roads, bridges, railways, energy supply, industrial park and business establishment. It also includes the social facilities that support social services, increase social comfort and promote economic activity, such as parks, schools and hospitals. Both increase the attractiveness of a city-region to firms, labours and economic activities.

2. For The Economic Observer, see https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1633591944119115414&wfr=spider&for=pc/.