Regional integration and governance reshuffling under the city-regionalism of China : a case study of Shenzhen-Dongguan-Huizhou sub-region

Abstract

Under China’s reorientation towards city-regionalism as the main economic-spatial strategy, some regions that are affected by global economy restructuring and ridden with crises of economic development deadlock are officially designated as city-regions governed by integration-oriented institutions. This government-induced city-regionalism receives critical attention in the political economy literature. Also, the theoretical framework that document economic and institutional integrations is still ambiguous, which calls into question the political construction process of regional governance in enabling effective economic integration. Therefore, it is necessary to thoroughly investigate the extent of economic and institutional integrations and the underlying governance reshuffling process. In this study, Shenzhen-Dongguan-Huizhou sub-region (SDH) in southern China is anchored since it has been acting as a testbed for the nation’s “one-step-ahead” policy for a long time. Specifically, this study systematically assesses the extent of economic integration of SDH by critically gauging and investigating market, industrial and infrastructure integrations. It has been found that when industrial integration and infrastructure equality gradually weakened, they underlying obstacles of city-regionalism. To counteract, the market gradually become more integrated and infrastructure connectivity rather than equality was emphasized. Shenzhen, as a regional core city, was well integrated with its adjacent cities: Dongguan and Huizhou, in both the market and infrastructure dimensions but industrial isomorphism was high, signaling keen competition among the three cities. Regarding integration between regional core city and outlying cities (i.e., Shanwei and Heyuan), market and industrial integration was high, while the infrastructure connectivity and equality were weak. This study formulated a multi-level governance-based analytical framework to assess inter-scalar, inter-city and state-market-civil society relations in order to understand the institutional integration of SDH. It unveiled that the institutional integration of SDH remained a government-led integration process. Also, an inter-scalar relation examination formed that intensifying central administrative control was entangled with flourishing bottom-up institutional innovations. The lack of regional authority led to the provincial government’s dominance in constructing the sub-regional fabric. Regarding inter-city relation, it was a voluntary process of economy-first and growth-oriented city grouping, stabilized by formal institutions and centered on regional core city. In addition, institutional integration remained a government-led integrating process, and the market and social actors with limited influence stayed at the edge. Furthermore, this study investigated the reshuffling process of the governance structure in response to industrial and infrastructure integrations, and the inter-connected economic and institutional integrations. It was found that the government-led integration process reshuffled the governance structure towards a collaborative mode, particularly facilitating the cross-boundary industrial collaboration. This process was characterized by the political mobilization and deregulation initiated by provincial government, and the highly-integrated inter-city cooperation based on complementation of aims and relative advantages across different cities. To propel regional infrastructure project, the government-led integration process has restructured inter-scalar interaction which is ridden with collaboration, but currently resistance and compromise. These two divergent trajectories of regional governance restructuring show that China’s city-regionalism is essentially a state-orchestrated and institution-based process in which the state’s role varies case-by-case, rather than being a mechanical and two-tracked “upscaling and downscaling” process.