CHINA'S URBAN ARCHIPELAGOS AS DRIVERS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC SPACE
Abstract
The article explores how China’s leading urban archipelagos – megaregions that concentrate economic activity and drive innovation – have reshaped the country’s role in the global economy. Focusing on the Yangtze River Delta, the Greater Bay Area, and Jing Jin Ji, it highlights each region’s distinctive specialization, governance model and openness to international markets. Together, they underpin China’s economic resilience, global competitiveness and a new urban development paradigm in which individual cities function as autonomous nodes in global value chains. Spatial organization and economic structure vary by megaregion. The Yangtze River Delta tops national GDP rankings and hosts dense high tech clusters, advanced logistics networks and strong foreign investment appeal. The Greater Bay Area combines Shenzhen’s tech prowess, Hong Kong’s financial depth and Guangzhou’s industrial capacity under a hybrid governance model that bridges mainland and special administrative region systems. Jing Jin Ji exemplifies policy led integration: Beijing’s noncapital functions are systematically relocated to satellite zones (notably Xiong’an), supported by coordinated transport, administrative and environmental infrastructure. A comparative analysis details each region’s contribution to trade, investment, research and governance. Between 2023 and 2024, all three saw breakthroughs in digitalization, green energy adoption, healthcare reform and financial innovation. Talent attraction mechanisms, smart city initiatives and platform based services are accelerating structural modernization across industries. The megaregions are not only domestic growth engines but also extensions of China’s geo economic reach: they facilitate internal mobility, introduce new management practices and serve as international showcases for integrating into – and shaping – global value chains. Ultimately, these urban archipelagos redefine spatial development in an era of globalization. By transforming large cities into independent, functionally specialized nodes, they chart a model for future urbanized economies worldwide – one that balances regional cohesion, innovative dynamism and global integration.
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