Empowering regional economy with a spectacular space: mega-events, over-drafted capital and momentary growth in China’s metropolises

ABSTRACT

China’s leading city-region governments have actively pursued momentary economic growth and spectacular spatial development by hosting mega-events. The cases of the Beijing and Guangzhou show that mega-events have functioned as instruments (ab)used by municipal governments to expedite land sales, relocate old state-owned industries, and drive migrant workers and the urban underclass out of the city centre. Improved environmental quality was found to be short lived. Hosting mega-events was a temporary stimulus prolonging the cycle of regional economic growth (and decline). The competitive edge of the central city was further enhanced at the expense of the disadvantaged and marginalized periphery. The findings of this research call for a critical re-evaluation of perceptions of space and place in studies of urban and regional development.

摘要

以重大赛事促进区域经济：中国大城市的重大事件、透支资本和短暂增长. Area Development and Policy. 中国的一流城市地区政府积极通过举办重大赛事来追求短暂的经济增长与令人瞩目的空间发展。北京和广州的案例表明，重大事件已经成为市级政府加快土地销售、转移国有老产业和将农民工和城市底层人口驱逐出城市中心所使/滥用的工具。研究发现这带来了短时的环境质量改善。举办重大赛事是一种延长区域经济增长（与衰退）周期的临时性刺激措施。中心城市竞争优势的进一步提高以弱势的边缘地区的发展为代价。本研究的结果呼吁对城市与区域发展研究中空间和地方的认识进行批判性的再评价。

RESUMEN

Capacitar la economía regional con un espacio espectacular: mega eventos, extracciones excesivas de capital y el crecimiento momentáneo en las metrópolis de China. Area Development and Policy. Los Gobiernos de las principales regiones metropolitanas de China han seguido activamente el crecimiento económico momentáneo y el desarrollo espacial espectacular mediante la organización de mega eventos. Los casos de Pekín y Cantón muestran que los mega eventos han funcionado como instrumentos (ab)usados por las administraciones municipales para facilitar la venta de tierras, reubicar antiguas industrias de propiedad estatal y echar a los trabajadores inmigrantes y la clase marginada urbana del centro de la ciudad. Se observó que la mejora de la calidad del medio ambiente era efímera. Organizar mega eventos era un estímulo temporal para prolongar el ciclo del crecimiento (y declive) económico regional. La ventaja competitiva del centro de la ciudad se mejoró aún más a expensas de la periferia desfavorecida y marginada. Los resultados de este estudio indican que es necesario hacer una reevaluación crítica de las percepciones de espacio y lugar en los estudios del desarrollo urbano y regional.

Аннотация

Стимулирование региональной экономики при помощи эффектного пространства: мега-события, капиталовложения и кратковременный рост мегаполисов Китая. Area Development and Policy. Власти ведущих китайских городов-регионов активно преследуют возможности кратковременного стимулирования экономического роста и создания эффектного пространства посредством проведения мега-событий. Примеры Пекина и Гуанчжоу показывают, что мега-события выступают как инструменты, используемые, к лучшему или худшему, муниципальными властями для ускорения продажи земельных участков, перемещения старых государственных предприятий и стимулирования переезда рабочих-мигрантов и представителей городских низов из центра города. Улучшение качества окружающей среды оказывается недолгим. Мега-события выступают в качестве временного стимула, продлевая цикл регионального экономического роста (и спада). Конкурентоспособность центральной части города расширяется за счет обездоленной и маргинализированной периферии. Результаты этого исследования призывают к критической переоценке представлений о пространстве и месте в изучении городского и регионального развития.

KEYWORDS:

• regional development
• mega-events
• urban politics
• political economy
• China
• Beijing Olympics
• Guangzhou Asian Games

关键词:

• 区域发展
• 重大事件
• 城市政治
• 政治经济
• 中国
• 北京奥运会
• 广州亚运会

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• desarrollo regional
• mega eventos
• políticas urbanas
• economía política
• China
• Juegos Olímpicos de Pekín
• Juegos Asiáticos de Cantón

Ключевые слова:

• региональное развитие
• мега-события
• градостроительная политике
• политическая экономия
• Китай
• Олимпийские игры в Пекине
• Азиатские игры в Гуанчжоу

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Liu Tao, Li Bin, Kong Yinghui, Lin Bocheng, and Lu Wenhua for research assistance and Michael Dunford as well as the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The Chinese statistical authorities define the urban built-up area as ‘a largely continuous area covered by urban constructions and urban facilities. Water surfaces such as rivers and lakes are also included’ (Lin & Ho, 2003, p. 88). The migrant population refers to those who do not hold an officially recognized household registration of the city, but who have lived in the city for six months or longer. In this study, the migrant population was defined as the difference between the resident population (changzhu renkou) and the local population (huji renkou).

2. Beijing’s hosting of the 2008 Olympics was announced in July 2001. Guangzhou’s hosting of the 2010 Asian Games was announced in July 2004.

3. Chinese fixed-assets investment includes five main categories: (1) state budgetary allocation; (2) domestic loans obtained from banks and non-bank financial institutions; (3) foreign investment and foreign borrowing; (4) self-raised funds, which include formal and informal borrowing, local levies on utilities and services, and other extra-budgetary funds; and (5) others, which includes the funds raised through issuing bonds by enterprises, financial institutions and/or individuals, funds raised through donations, and funds transferred from other units (CCSB, 2011, p. 211).

4. There are exceptional cases, however, as state-owned urban land is also occupied by state agencies, state-owned enterprises, subsidiaries of the central ministries and the military over which the municipal government has little control (Lin, 2009; Hsing, 2010).

5. For obvious reasons, no reliable data have ever been released on the actual net income from land sales. The data used here are land traded price (tudi churang chengjiao jiakuang). These prices essentially represent the gross income from land sales, as they include the costs of land expropriation (zhengdi fei) and development (kaifa fei) that turns undeveloped into developed land (Lin, 2014, p. 1821).

6. The supply of urban land is made through administrative allocation (huabo) and land conveyance (churang) as well as land leasing (zhuling) (Lin & Ho, 2005; Lin, 2009).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR [grant numbers GRF 746413H, GRF 17662116 and CRF C7028-16G]; and by Seed Funding for Basic Research Program of the University of Hong Kong.