Urbanisation in China's Fujian Province Since 1978

Urbanisation in Fujian since 1978 has been basically unknown to the western world. This paper attempts to unveil it by understanding this issue within a framework emphasising both the causal mechanisms and the spatial relations. The government of a shortage economy and the society in a frontier position before 1978 had produced an urban legacy of low urbanisation level, mainly in a small number of cities and towns. The coastal-interior divide in urban development had also been pronounced. A new rationality of government has emerged since 1978. It reflects a recognition of the relative autonomy of the economy and the population nature of society. Concomitantly, a new role has been assigned to cities and towns. The latter serve to put the economy and society under some forms of state regulation. Some cities and towns, especially those in the coastal region, have benefitted most from the new state policies of stimulating economic growth via the intervention of the spatial contingent effects and boundary effects. The outcomes are: the "urbanisation" of the countryside and the "ruralisation" of cities and towns. At the regional level, an urban growth corridor along the coast has thus been formed. By explaining the process within this framework, the paper offers an informed understanding of urbanisation in Fujian to the western world.