The exploration of current policy situations of gentrification in cities in the Yangtze River Delta, China

Gentrification, an urban phenomenon that emerged in the United Kingdom and expanded across Europe and the United States during the 20th and 21st centuries, has become a highly contested issue in developed countries. In recent years, academic attention has increasingly shifted toward Eastern and Global South contexts, although a comprehensive research framework has yet to be fully established. This study examines the development and policy orientation of gentrification in China, a representative East Asian developing country, and compares Chinese and Western consumer perceptions of the phenomenon.Focusing on the Yangtze River Delta, the study examines three representative case studies from provincial capitals: Shanghai's Xintiandi, Hangzhou's Kerry Centre, and Nanjing's Gulou District. Together, these cases provide a comprehensive picture of gentrification practices in the region. The research integrates 31 gentrification-related policies from Yangtze River Delt into an evaluative framework and analyzes consumer perceptions using the top 200 online reviews for each site from four platforms. Multiple analytical methods, including policy analysis, thematic comparison, word cloud analysis, and comment evaluation, reveal that gentrification in the Yangtze River Delta is largely government-led. Urban redevelopment has produced “silent victims,” including displaced residents, the disappearance of small-scale local industries, and the erosion of traditional neighborhood networks. Policies have broadly liberalized commercialization without effectively regulating land use or price escalation. Consumer reviews suggest that policy direction shapes relatively weak but consistent sentiment. Finally, the study identifies spatial inequities in redevelopment benefits, which disproportionately favor high-value sites and raise concerns about social fairness in urban renewal.