Recent Spatial Restructuring in Zhujiang Delta, South China: A Study of Socialist Regional Development Strategy

Abstract China's agricultural reforms and open door policy adopted since 1978 have had impact on the country's economic structure, population characteristics, and urban development. This paper examines the spatial implications of such changes in the light of the development of Zhujiang Delta located in the coastal region of South China. Market-oriented agricultural production, rural industrialization, migration of surplus farm labor, and the spread of small towns in the rural areas are some of the consequences of the reforms and are placed in the perspective of the coreperiphery theory of regional development. It is argued that the hybrid “center-downward”and “periphery-upward”approach in spatial development was adopted because it was politically more adaptable to the Chinese objectives of economic development, which continue to uphold Marxism, Maoism and Communist Party leadership. Through careful control of the destination of the rural migrants in conjunction with the policy of small town development, China hopes to establish a new spatial relationship between the core and the periphery on more equal footing. Currently the spatial structure of Zhujiang Delta displays a well-integrated network of towns of varying sizes being established to fill in gaps in the settlement hierarchy to effect spread of benefits from the core to its periphery. But contrary to expectations, spatial inequity in development persists as the core has advanced at a much faster pace than its periphery.