The 2025 International Conference on China Urban Development: Governing Urban Development in a Changing World. London. 06/07/2025-08/07/2025.

The 2025 International Conference on China Urban Development was held at University College London from 6^th July to 8^th July 2025. The theme of the conference is ‘Governing Urban Development in a Changing World’. The topics include environmental and climate governance, social relations, economic development, urbanisation, urban (re)development, city-region governance, spatial planning, rural governance, big data and artificial intelligence, urban financialisation, theorising governance, and others in and beyond China. The conference attracted over 200 scholars and specialists from nearly 20 countries and regions.

The conference is hosted by the China Planning Research Group, which is coordinated by Professor Fulong Wu and Professor Fangzhu Zhang and based at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. Professor Fulong Wu is currently the Bartlett Professor of Planning. His academic publications are cited over 30,000 times in Google Scholar. Professor Fangzhu Zhang and Professor Zhigang Li (Wuhan University, China) co-founded the academic journal Transactions in Planning and Urban Research, (TPUR). This journal aims to promote the development of China’s urban and planning research. It has published a series of influential papers. This conference is supported by the European Research Council Advanced Grant ‘ChinaUrban’.

On 6^th July, the organisation committee held a river cruise as the pre-conference welcome activity. The cruise consisted of a round trip starting/ending at the Westminster Pier. There were plenty of London’s famous sightseeing sites along the route, including the Parliament Building, the Big Ben, the London Eye, the Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf, etc. The organisation committee invited Professor Peter Rees from the Bartlett School of Planning to give a commentary on London’s urban development and planning. The river cruise attracted over 180 delegates and their families and friends.  

The conference started on 7^th July. The Introduction and Welcome Session was chaired by Professor Fangzhu Zhang. Professor Anthony Gar-on Yeh, Chair Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Design, The University of Hong Kong; Professor Mike Raco, Head, the Barlett School of Planning, University College London; and Dr Michael Spence, President & Provost of University College London, spoke at the session.

Professor Yeh used his academic career as the example to emphasise the importance of doing cutting-edge urban research. He encouraged the delegates, especially the early-career delegates, to use this conference as an opportunity to improve their research and broaden their networks.

Professor Raco introduced the development of the Bartlett School of Planning and highlighted the importance of Chinese students to its research and teaching. He then emphasised the importance of the development of Chinese cities to the development of the cities worldwide.

Dr Spence suggested that the theme of this conference fitted well the visions and value of University College London since its establishment, which is focusing on the key issues in the changing times. He praised the contribution of this conference to international education and research and thanked all the delegates from across the world.

Next is the Keynote Session. This session was chaired by Professor Fulong Wu. Professor Anthony Gar-on Yeh and Professor Jamie Peck, University Killam Professor, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Canada, gave keynote speeches.

Professor Yeh gave a speech titled ‘Smart Technology and Urban Governance’. He introduced the influence of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, on urban governance. He suggested that these technologies improve the efficiency of urban governance and make the cities safer and more convenient. However, whether they can solve some core problems, such as resources misallocation, remains to be seen.

Professor Peck gave a speech titled ‘Party-state capitalism on the edge’. Using the Hong Kong-Macau-Guangdong Greater Bay Area as an example, he explained China’s governance model of city-region and development. He suggested that the model cannot be simply explained by any existing theories. The model itself is theoretical and can promote conjunctural theorisation, dialoguing with the existing theories. The new theories fostered are important to improving urban and regional research.

The first TPUR Plenary followed the Keynote Session. The theme was ‘Changing Urban Studies and the Future of Urban China Research’. The plenary was chaired by Professor Chris Hamnett, Emeritus Professor, Department of Geography, King’s College London. The panellists included Professor Michael Batty, Emeritus Bartlett Professor of Planning at University College London and Chair of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA); Professor Cecilia Wong, Professor of Spatial Planning, Co-Director of Policy@Manchester, Director of Spatial Policy & Analysis Lab and Research Director of Planning, Property and Environmental Management Department at The University of Manchester; Professor David Wilson, Professor of Geography, Department of Geography, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA; and Professor Max Woodworth, Associate Professor, Research Associate Mershon Center for International Security Studies, Department of Geography, The Ohio State University.

Professor Batty gave a talk titled ‘Cities of the Future in an Artificially Intelligent World’. He introduced how new technologies, represented by artificial intelligence, change the shape of city. He suggested that the ways of communication between residents have changed from face-to-face to virtual forms. He emphasised the importance of various hard and soft infrastructures, which shape the form of cities and the model of urban governance.

Professor Wong gave a talk titled ‘Challenges of spatial planning in uncertain times’. Using urban green belts and new towns as examples, she introduced the evolution of UK’s spatial and strategic planning. She suggested that UK’s planning is facing significant uncertainty. Domestic economic decline and turbulent international politics are the main sources of the uncertainty. The uncertainty brings research opportunities and generates implications for China’s planning.

Professor Wilson gave a talk titled ‘Dracula Urbanism and Chinese City Change: A Prognosis’. He demonstrated a series of social problems in the rapid urban development in China, such as inequality and the marginalisation of the vulnerable groups. He suggested that it is an outcome of a growth-oriented development mode, which is particularly evident in large cities. In the meantime, he suggested that although the situation is common in China, the specific manifestations are context-specific.

Professor Woodworth gave a talk titled ‘Who Speaks for China Urban Studies?’. He discussed the theoretical approaches to China’s urban research. He reviewed some theoretical perspectives. For example, context-based theories based on China’s context have become increasingly popular. Such theories can enrich the existing views and help to generate a better understanding of China.  

Parallel Sessions started in the afternoon on 7^th July and lasted to the afternoon on 8^th July. There were 32 sessions, comprising of over 160 presentations. Delegates presented their research and communicated with colleagues, contributing to urban research in and beyond China.

The second TPUR Plenary was held after the Parallel Sessions. The chair was Professor Fangzhu Zhang. The theme was ‘Critical Debates in China’s Urban Governance’. The panellists included Professor Shenjing He, Lady Edith Kotewall Professor in the Built Environment, Head of the Department of Urban Planning and Design, The University of Hong Kong; Professor Hyun Bang Shin, Professor of Geography and Urban Studies and Head of the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science; Professor Jiang Xu, Professor and Head, Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; and Professor Fulong Wu, Bartlett Professor of Planning, The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London.

Professor He gave a talk titled ‘Towards co-governance? Emergent norms and forms of neighbourhood governance in urban China’. She introduced neighbourhood co-governance in China. She suggested that there are different manifestations of this governance model, such as state-led co-creation. Different manifestations reflect different power dynamics and can be explained by different theories, such as state entrepreneurialism. She argued that neighbourhood co-governance is one of the main ways the Chinses state tries to achieve governance objectives.

Professor Shin gave a talk titled ‘Entrepreneurial Neo-managerialism: Revisiting Urban Governance in China’. He demonstrated the evolution of the governance models used by Chinese central and local governments. He suggested that the recent social policies promoted by the central government reflect its pursuit of managerial governance. Under such influence, local governments try to strike a balance between entrepreneurial and managerial endeavour.

Professor Xu gave a talk titled ‘Reconceptualizing Land Development in China: A Strategic Discursive-Material Nexus Approach’. She analysed the land development model in China and suggested that the Chinese state justifies its governance in material and discursive aspects. Using perspectives from economic sociology and cultural political economy, she explained how the Chinese state uses land development to achieve multi-scalar governance objectives and raises a series of epistemological claims as support. She used the Big Data Valley in Guizhou as the case to support the argument.

Professor Wu gave a talk titled ‘From entrepreneurial to managerial statecraft: New trends of urban governance transformation in post-pandemic China’. He explained the change of China’s governance model after the COVID-19 Pandemic. He suggested that the state-owned capital plays a more important role in the capital market; the central government intervenes more in spatial planning; and state-led co-creation is more prevalent in neighbourhood governance. These changes reflect the strategic objectives of the Chinese state in the current conjuncture.

The conference closed after the second TPUR Plenary. The conference provided a platform for over 200 urban experts and scholars in and beyond China to communicate their work, making significant contributions to research and beyond.

See more photos of the conference here.

Photos by CPRG