ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to understand how China finances its urban development and whether land-based finance practices lead to financialization. The chapter examines China’s system of ‘land finance’ and interrogates its exact meaning with reference to ‘land financialization.’ It also explains the Chinese pathway to housing financialization and how housing consumption propelled China’s urban development toward financialization. The chapter then examines local government financial vehicles (LGFVs) and the role of local government debt. It explains a series of governance reforms that were introduced initially to cope with the 2008 global financial crisis and then with growing local government debts. It investigates the implications of using financial instruments for urban governance. The chapter reveals that China’s urban financialization is a financialized statecraft—involving the long shadow of the state. Finally, the chapter reflects on state-led financialization and compares it with other contexts in which the role of the state in financialization is visible.
