Upscaled state entrepreneurialism: Centrally controlled state-owned enterprises in post-pandemic urban development

State capitalism has resurged in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. As China encounters geopolitical tensions, property market decline, economic slowdown, and public fiscal deficit, how does new state capitalism become relevant to China’s contemporary urban development? This paper examines post-pandemic urban development and governance and investigates a new trend of state capital expansion in large-scale urban development in Wuhan. The state-owned enterprises (SOEs) owned by the Chinese central government are mobilised to revitalise the post-pandemic economy. In particular, local governments collaborate with large construction companies to undertake suburban new town development despite housing stagnation and economic downturn. They demonstrate the transformation of entrepreneurial governance under state capitalism, where the state remains central in governing urban development, while the central state becomes a key player. We identify a new trend of upscaled state entrepreneurialism in China, where state centrality is increasingly achieved through the direct expansion of central state capital via centrally controlled SOEs. Extensive state capital investment in the production of urban space increases the risk of replicating the failure of land-driven urban entrepreneurialism.