Reintegrating China’s Development Zones: Leadership Linkages and Administrative Logics

Do development zones in Chinese cities exacerbate administrative fragmentation or help to overcome it? In this article, I introduce a new typology of zone administrative logics that recognizes varying relationships between zones and the municipal party-state, and I analyze an original dataset of zone leader appointments to develop new empirical insights into China's urban governance. Qualitative evidence from the cities of Nanjing and Xi’an and quantitative evidence from a larger set of cities reveal that China's zone leaders often hold concurrent or prior postings in other local jurisdictions or in municipal government that position them to coordinate closely with other party-state actors. On average, zone leaders have more such linkages and greater mobility across units than comparably ranked leaders of urban districts and counties. Yet, zone leaders’ appointment patterns vary across Chinese cities and over time, underscoring the importance of local context and the enduring tradeoffs involved in zone-style governance.