Implementation Challenges of State-Led Redevelopment in Shrinking Cities: Case Study of Shantytown Redevelopment in Yichun, Northeast China

Unlike shrinking cities in Western countries enduring prolonged disinvestment due to market liberalism, some of their counterparts in Northeast China are undergoing drastic redevelopment under state capitalism. However, the challenges and effects of implementing such redevelopment in shrinking cities remain to be seen. This study examined a specific state-led shantytown (quasi-formal settlement) redevelopment policy entitled “Regulation Methods on Shantytown Redevelopment in State-Owned Forestry Areas” that was designed and implemented in state-owned forestry areas beginning in 2010 to construct affordable housing and compensate local residents adversely impacted by the logging ban initiated in 2000. The study analyzed the implementation of this policy in Yichun, a shrinking forestry city in China’s rust belt (Northeast China). The implementation of this policy differs from China’s typical privately funded market-led redevelopment in other areas, in terms of combining the rigorous implementation of central government’s policy and funding in tandem with the discretionary actions of the local state-owned forestry bureau. Although the Regulation Methods policy has improved the living conditions of participating families’, it has been only partially implemented and is facing three major challenges: the unstable partnership between different tiers of government, social resistance from grassroots, and overdraft of local credibility and capability. This study concluded that the Yichun case represents a case of problematic state-led redevelopment (analogous in some ways to US postwar urban renewal) where state planning power does not adequately address public needs, particularly household socioeconomic considerations and thus will not save shrinking cities from population decline.