Worlding Developmentalism: China's Economic Zones Within and Beyond its Border

This paper examines the development of Economic Zones in post-reform China and the recent export of zoning practices as a part of the country's ‘going global’ strategy. I propose ‘worlding developmentalism’ to conceptualise the synergy between a polymorphous yet capable state in directing the path of domestic growth and overseas ventures, and a population who actively captures emerging economic opportunities in transnational contexts. The concept is then substantiated by the promotion of Economic Zones under the Belt and Road Initiative and China–Africa Cooperation. The contested spaces produced in the Global South under these new development paradigms necessitate keen scholarly investigation.