Routledge Contemporary China Series. New York; London: Routledge [an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business], 2018. xii, 132 pp. (Tables, figures, map.) US$150.00, cloth. ISBN 978-1-138-68224-5.
Since the late 1970s, scholars have done numerous studies on the development of political economy in various Chinese regions during the reform and opening period. Regional political economy is crucial to evaluate change in Chinese political economy, and the rise of China and its implications, domestically as well as internationally. Joining this group of scholarship is Tim Summers’s book, China’s Regions in an Era of Globalization, part of the Routledge Contemporary China Series.
The purpose of this book, which consists of a short introduction and six chapters, is to convey that the vast and different regions across the nation are key actors in the process of China’s intensified global engagement. It seeks to examine the complex interaction between China’s regional development and globalization by focusing on the case studies of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA) and Chongqing/Yunnan.
To distinguish this volume from the bulk its predecessors, Summers’s book discusses the role of China’s regions vis-à-vis the nation’s engagement with economic globalization and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in particular, the most ambitious externally-oriented policy initiative announced by China so far.
This book intends to present a story of “differentiated participation in the global economy across China’s regions” (1). To accompany China’s integration into the global economy, its regions have increasingly engaged economically with the outside world. Interestingly, as this book argues, the wave of globalization has not only impacted eastern coastal regions, it also has generated much impact on China’s western inland regions.
The fast development of supply chains and fragmented global production networks on a global scale have promoted the exposure of China’s regions to the world economy as important manufacturing bases. The author discusses how “globalization moves inland” in chapter 4, as China’s admission to the World Trade Organization has accelerated this process. All of China’s regions have been incorporated to some extent into the globalized economy, with the degree of incorporation of course varying.
This book provides useful information for scholars, students, and policymakers interested in China’s regional political economy. First, in chapter 1, the author offers a comprehensive overview of the history of regional development policies and the state’s underlying motivations since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The book then zooms in to detailed case studies and a discussion of the BRI. The author specifically discusses the formation of the urban cluster, or city-cluster, which is a relatively new regional development policy initiative introduced by the Chinese government in 2010.
My criticism of this book relates to four areas. First, as Summers rightly points out, the Greater Bay Area is an iconic mega region that is part of China’s story of great transformation over the past forty years. It has emerged from being the world’s manufacturing factory to become an important global innovation hub. Nevertheless, in chapter 3, this book analyzes the cities within the GBA including Shenzhen and Hong Kong as separate and disconnected entities, and it fails to take on the formation of city-cluster in the Bay Area, or the strong interaction and economic and industrial linkage among these cities.
Second, this book has not demonstrated sufficient appreciation of the vast diversity of China’s regions. China’s regions and their conditions vary hugely; as the author stated, “every part of China is different” (17). That being the case, it raises questions over how typical and representative the studies on the GBA and the Chongqing inland region can be. More research into China’s different regions in the context of globalization is needed.
Third, against the rising trend of anti-globalization and economic protectionism in the world, and the United States in particular since President Donald Trump came to office in 2017, globalization has faced a strong push back. What does this all mean for the development of China’s regional political economy? This book has not touched upon how the unfolding of this anti-globalization trend has and could exert a long-term impact on China’s regions.
Last, the book’s aim to analyze the BRI in the context of China’s regions is new and much appreciated. The author discusses the inland regions’ openness to the world economy and global value chain, and states that, “the BRI further facilitates the participation of these localities in the global economy” (99). It is a rightful assessment, but the analysis of the BRI presented in this book is apparently simplified. How to measure the impact of the BRI on China’s regional development, for instance, the impact on the regions’ infrastructure and trade sectors? The motivations that have driven China’s push for this initiative and the specific impact of BRI implementation on China’s regional economic growth have not been sufficiently discussed. Additionally, what are the major internal and external challenges faced by China’s regions in the BRI implementation? Discussion of these important issues is surprisingly absent.
Yet despite these limitations, Summers’s book is a timely publication in terms of helping its readers to better understand the interaction between China’s regional development and economic globalization.
Hong Yu
National University of Singapore, Singapore