Book review: Weapons of the Rich: Strategic Action of Private Entrepreneurs in Contemporary China

Abstract

better-planned and integrated approach to pursuing environmental sustainability and equality. While criticizing the failure of the socialist economy and advocating for market efficiency, Zhu respects the role of state regulation and of city planning in the protection of the public interest. What remains to be clarified is not only land rights but also the role of planning: how can coordinated development be achieved, but not at the expense of bottom–up, spontaneous development that more grass-roots actors might take part in and benefit from? While Zhu advocates clear delineations of land rights, whether market efficiency can bring about better planning remains to be seen. The growth machine theory focuses on the political process of urban development. With or without clearly defined private land ownership, land development is never carried out in a political vacuum. Other political and social mechanisms have to be taken into account in order to protect the aim of environmental sustainability. Perhaps even more important to the question of sustainability is how the very notion of the city as a growth machine can be challenged.