State land policy, land markets and geographies of manufacturing: The case of Beijing, China

The aim of this article is to explore the relationship between state land policies, land markets and geographies of manufacturing in Beijing. Industries have decentralised moving from the centre, and agglomerating in various types of development zone in the outer city. The new patterns of industrial location in Beijing are to a significant extent due to state land policies that impact on manufacturing geographies through land prices, the land supply system and land property reforms. However, industrial relocation involves not only negotiations between government and firms, but is also a game played among different levels of government. National, provincial, municipal, county and even rural level governments bargain with each other to shape and gain from the relocation of industries.