ABSTRACT
Gradual changes in China's administrative hierarchy not only profoundly altered, but were also shaped by, the country's burgeoning cities that dominated China's economic, political, and social landscape. This chapter focuses on some variables that have changed over the course of the reform period, in order to understand the political process that affects the two-way interaction - between the administrative hierarchy and industrialization and urbanization. It focuses on the ebb and flow of these changes, dividing the reform period into three distinct phases, the first being one of decentralization and intense policy focus on industrialization and urbanization, and the second being one of recentralization and a softening of the focus on industrialization and urbanization seen during the first period. The third phase has seen the Xi Jinping administration adopt the centralizing tendencies of the second phase, but also take on the urbanization thrust of the first phase - and bring both of these to a new level of diligence and depth.
