Reformulating the Developmental State Theory to Explain Chinese Spatial Planning

Developmental state literature almost completely neglects the fact that one of the unique features of the developmental state is its capacity to reorganize its territory, and the literature on the Chinese developmental state repeats the same oversight. Against this backdrop, this study attempts to retheorize China’s spatial planning from a developmental state perspective. In light of the theoretical discussion in this study, we argue that the developmentalist spatial planning has five main characteristics of the developmentalist spatial planning: (1) The state sees its territory as a means of production, not as a living environment. (2) Industrial location policies were market-conforming. (3) The spatial planning was controlled or strongly influenced by the elite economic agency that formulates industrial policies and guides the market. (4) The bureaucracy is more or less insulated from local growth coalitions. (5) Spatial planning creates rather than responds to economic changes. These five characteristics are apparent in China’s spatial planning as much as in South Korea’s.