IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i13p3496-d242931.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Policy Mobilities and the China Model: Pairing Aid Policy in Xinjiang

Author

Listed:
  • Tao Song

    (Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resource Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
    The Collaborative Innovation Center of the Geographical Environment and Frontier Development in Southwest China, Kunming 650500, China)

  • Weidong Liu

    (Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resource Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China)

  • Zhigao Liu

    (Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resource Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China)

  • Yeerken Wuzhati

    (Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resource Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China)

Abstract

This paper seeks to make a contribution to on-going debates about how to conceptualize the “China model” by emphasizing the top-down regional coordination strategies of China in the context of policy mobilities. The notion of policy mobilities is a hot issue through which to analyze how successful political ideas are often mobilized, imitated, adapted, and reused in new places by various actors through learning the global “best” experiences. However, policy mobilities should be employed as a frame within a specific political-economy context and the “institutional geometries”, especially in China which is characterized by centralization of state power and impressive economic growth recently. In this paper, we argue that the case of pairing aid policy in China, in which diffused policy ideas regarding advanced development initiatives are transferred and adopted in relatively underdeveloped areas, serves as a key part of the China model to balance regional development. Drawing on a case study of pairing aid policy in Xinjiang, the paper explores the ways in which the advanced industries, cadres, and investments from 19 developed coastal provinces or cities were mobilized by the state power network: (1) Transferring cadres and technicians from developed areas to directly work in Xinjiang temporally; (2) mobilizing the industrial policy package to attract labor-intensive and resource-oriented firms located in the industrial zones of Xinjiang; and (3) mobilizing a part of fiscal investments from donating areas to expand recipients’ direct investments. By doing this, we illustrate how higher-level authority can develop more state powers to transfer regional cadres, capital, and projects from developed areas to less developed ones, as well as how mobilized policies can be entrepreneurially adopted and flexibly mutated in the context of various local conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Tao Song & Weidong Liu & Zhigao Liu & Yeerken Wuzhati, 2019. "Policy Mobilities and the China Model: Pairing Aid Policy in Xinjiang," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-17, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:13:p:3496-:d:242931
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/13/3496/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/13/3496/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shenjing He & Lingyue Li & Yong Zhang & Jun Wang, 2018. "A Small Entrepreneurial City in Action: Policy Mobility, Urban Entrepreneurialism, and Politics of Scale in Jiyuan, China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(4), pages 684-702, July.
    2. John Allen & Allan Cochrane, 2007. "Beyond the Territorial Fix: Regional Assemblages, Politics and Power," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(9), pages 1161-1175.
    3. Rachel Bok, 2015. "Airports on the move? The policy mobilities of Singapore Changi Airport at home and abroad," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(14), pages 2724-2740, November.
    4. Eugene McCann & Kevin Ward, 2012. "Policy Assemblages, Mobilities and Mutations: Toward a Multidisciplinary Conversation," Political Studies Review, Political Studies Association, vol. 10(3), pages 325-332, September.
    5. Allan Cochrane & Kevin Ward, 2012. "Researching the Geographies of Policy Mobility: Confronting the Methodological Challenges," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(1), pages 5-12, January.
    6. Allan Cochrane & Jamie Peck & Adam Tickell, 1996. "Manchester Plays Games: Exploring the Local Politics of Globalisation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 33(8), pages 1319-1336, October.
    7. Jun Zhang, 2012. "From Hong Kong’s Capitalist Fundamentals to Singapore’s Authoritarian Governance: The Policy Mobility of Neo-liberalising Shenzhen, China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(13), pages 2853-2871, October.
    8. Shufang Wang & Axing Zhu & Yuejing Ge & Yuli Liu & Xiao Xue, 2017. "The Spatio-Temporal Evolution of Geo-Economic Relationships between China and ASEAN Countries: Competition or Cooperation?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-21, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Li Yu & Wei Xu, 2022. "Institutional conformity, entrepreneurial governance and local contingency: Problematizing central-local dynamics in localizing China's low-income housing policy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(3), pages 508-532, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John Allen & Allan Cochrane, 2014. "The Urban Unbound: London's Politics and the 2012 Olympic Games," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1609-1624, September.
    2. I-Chun Catherine Chang, 2017. "Failure matters: Reassembling eco-urbanism in a globalizing China," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(8), pages 1719-1742, August.
    3. Sabine Dörry & Olivier J Walther, 2015. "Contested ‘Relational Policy Spaces’ in Two European Border Regions," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(2), pages 338-355, February.
    4. Luke Fairbanks, 2019. "Policy mobilities and the sociomateriality of U.S. offshore aquaculture governance," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(5), pages 849-867, August.
    5. Heather Lovell, 2017. "Are policy failures mobile? An investigation of the Advanced Metering Infrastructure Program in the State of Victoria, Australia," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(2), pages 314-331, February.
    6. Robin Wright & Keavy McFadden, 2023. "Social reproduction and public finance: A comparative study of TIF in California and Chicago," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(8), pages 2108-2127, November.
    7. Gordon MacLeod, 2011. "Urban Politics Reconsidered," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(12), pages 2629-2660, September.
    8. Moritz Albrecht, 2017. "The role of translation loops in policy mutation processes: State designated Bioenergy Regions in Germany," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(5), pages 898-915, August.
    9. Anssi Paasi & Kaj Zimmerbauer, 2016. "Penumbral borders and planning paradoxes: Relational thinking and the question of borders in spatial planning," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(1), pages 75-93, January.
    10. Hammond, Jonathan & Lorne, Colin & Coleman, Anna & Allen, Pauline & Mays, Nicholas & Dam, Rinita & Mason, Thomas & Checkland, Kath, 2017. "The spatial politics of place and health policy: Exploring Sustainability and Transformation Plans in the English NHS," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 217-226.
    11. June Wang, 2021. "UNDERSTANDING SCALAR POLITICS THROUGH THE FRAMEWORK OF RELATIONAL ARCHIPELAGOS: The Case of Shenzhen Fair, China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 716-731, July.
    12. Georgina Blakeley, 2010. "Governing Ourselves: Citizen Participation and Governance in Barcelona and Manchester," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 130-145, March.
    13. Federico Savini, 2013. "The Governability of National Spatial Planning: Light Instruments and Logics of Governmental Action in Strategic Urban Development," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(8), pages 1592-1607, June.
    14. Kevin G Ward, 2000. "State Licence, Local Settlements, and the Politics of ‘Branding’ the City," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 18(3), pages 285-300, June.
    15. Ryan Anders Whitney & David López-García, 2023. "Fast-track institutionalization: The opening of urban planning best practice agencies in Mexico City," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 41(3), pages 600-616, May.
    16. Mark Davidson & Donald McNeill, 2012. "The Redevelopment of Olympic Sites: Examining the Legacy of Sydney Olympic Park," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(8), pages 1625-1641, June.
    17. Ida Andersson & Laura James, 2018. "Altruism or entrepreneurialism? The co-evolution of green place branding and policy tourism in Växjö, Sweden," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(15), pages 3437-3453, November.
    18. Shutian Zhou & Guofang Zhai & Yijun Shi, 2018. "What Drives the Rise of Metro Developments in China? Evidence from Nantong," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-20, August.
    19. Füg, Franz & Ibert, Oliver, 2020. "Assembling social innovations in emergent professional communities. The case of learning region policies in Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 28(3), pages 541-562.
    20. Balsiger, Jörg & Prys, Miriam & Steinhoff, Niko, 2012. "The Nature and Role of Regional Agreements in International Environmental Politics: Mapping Agreements, Outlining Future Research," GIGA Working Papers 208, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:13:p:3496-:d:242931. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.