Rescaling as a Leading National Transformation Project: Decoding State Rescaling in China's Changing Central State–Led Regional Planning

Abstract

It is worthwhile to empirically probe the prominent value of the transformation process by employing the state rescaling perspective. However, the state rescaling, as an important theoretical discourse, has not been systemically scrutinized in Chinese context. In this article, the empirical framework based on the central state–led regional planning and its changes is established and implemented to unfold the evolution trajectory of China’s six state scaling stages since 1953. In the meantime, it is argued that China’s state rescaling is not resulted from overall socioeconomic transformation, but plays a role as the leading project. Therefore, it could be concluded that state rescaling in China is neither the product of internal ‘natural economic process’ nor the consequence triggered by the globalization, but the outcome of the state’s positive political selection.