Productive urbicide in the name of preservation: Heritage-driven demolition and urban redevelopment in Datong, China

This paper examines the phenomenon of “productive urbicide,” the intentional, state-led destruction and reconfiguration of urban spaces legitimized through heritage preservation discourse, within the context of Chinese urban redevelopment. Taking the city of Datong, Shanxi Province, as a paradigmatic case study, we analyze the “Famous City Renewal” campaign (2008–2013) under Mayor Geng Yanbo, which integrated three interrelated strategies: transforming aged neighborhoods (slum clearance), releasing space for new developments (redevelopment and evacuation), and recreating historical styles (scene-making). Drawing on policy documents, scholarly and journalistic sources, and the documentary film The Chinese Mayor, we demonstrate how local governments leverage central government’s heritage preservation policies to pursue economic growth, tourism development, and political advancement, often at the expense of heritage authenticity, community cohesion, and fiscal sustainability. By developing a typological framework rooted in China’s evolving preservation policies and political economy, the paper advances a critical understanding of how preservation narratives are co-opted to enable large-scale spatial destruction, displacement, and urban rebranding. We argue that productive urbicide, driven by the intersection of China’s land-finance model, cadre rotation system, and heritage commodification, represents a distinctive but globally resonant pattern in which heritage becomes a tool of erasure rather than continuity.