China's new urbanization plan: Progress and structural constraints

This study presents a critical evaluation of China's New Urbanization Plan (NUP), a preliminary assessment of its implementation, and some policy recommendations. This study evaluates the NUP within the context of China's urbanization and its theoretical debates, arguing that the NUP harbors a hidden agenda of facilitating a transition in the regime of accumulation. The priority given to economic development imposes structural constraints on the attainment of human-centered urbanization. Furthermore, the NUP's goal to enhance interregional equality and national security is reminiscent of strategies adopted in the socialist era, although this time around these objectives are pursued by enhancing global connectivity rather than through autarky. Finally, this study provides an empirical assessment of the NUP's implementation by calculating data for six city clusters between 2013 and 2016, analyzing them according to regions and city sizes, and focusing on indicators identified from the Plan. It finds that although the pace of converting rural migrants meets the NUP target, the provision of urban social benefits remains frugal. The relocation of secondary industries to inland regions has not been accompanied by a commensurate shift of population growth. The NUP's implementation has also been accompanied by a sharp increase in land-sale revenue in 2018. •The NUP, as a novel approach to urbanization, fosters a new regime of accumulation and seeks ideological and strategic goals.•The NUP’s shortcomings are due partly to its simultaneous effort to promote economic and human-centered objectives.•The NUP helped to convert many rural migrants into urban residents without proportionately increasing urban social benefits.•The NUP succeeded in relocating secondary industries but not the human population away from the coastal city clusters.•That the NUP unintentionally provides excuses for land expropriation has been supported by statistics on land-sale revenue.