Urban-China Symposium: Changing Statecraft. London. 15/12/2025-17/12/2025.
Funded by the ERC project, the ERC team held a symposium titled ‘Urban-China Symposium: Changing Statecraft’ between 15th and 17th December 2025. The symposium was comprised of a public event on 15th and a closed-door workshop on 16th and 17th December. The public event included the reflection on the ERC project and two keynote speeches. Prof. Fangzhu Zhang chaired the event and welcomed the audience. Prof. Fulong Wu briefly introduced the project, and the ERC team members at the event reflected on the project based on their own research. The members included Dr Weikai Wang, Dr. Ying Wang, Dr Yi Feng, Dr Zhenfa Li, Handuo Deng, Manqi Wang, Yining Liu, Jingyi Qin, and Sumu Lin. The reflections were followed by an open discussion.
Photos by CPRG
The first keynote speech was delivered by Prof. George C.S. Lin. The title was ‘The Green/Smart Turn of China’s Urbanization: New Agenda for Urban China Studies’. Prof. Lin is Chair Professor of Geography and Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong. His research interests include China’s urbanization, land management, political economy of urban redevelopment and the emerging geography of low-carbon urbanism.
Photos by CPRG
The second keynote was delivered by Prof. Jane Duckett. The title was ‘Beyond state entrepreneurialism? Reflections on China’s changing urban governance’. Prof. Duckett is Edward Caird Chair of Politics and Director of the Scottish Centre for ChinaResearch at the University of Glasgow. She is a political scientist whose research spansChina’s urban governance, social policies and health system reforms as well as the China’shandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her early work examined the emergent entrepreneurialactivities of urban state agencies.
Photos by CPRG
The closed-door workshop was comprised of presentations and discussions. It contained 11 presentations delivered by 15 researchers. The topics reflected the various facets of the changing statecraft in urban China, such as the statecraft in the financing of urban development, environment improvement, neighbourhood development, digitalisation and smart cities, platform economy, etc. Every presentation was critically reviewed by the participants, and the discussions fostered important insights for the research and policy making.
Photos by CPRG