The life and death of large-scale offshore artificial islands in China: Mixed-method research to unveil the failure to adopt a transnational development model

There has been an upsurge of artificial island reclamation for tourism and residence purposes along the coastline in China since 2010. This boom lasted almost a decade and ceased suddenly around 2018. Nowadays, 24 artificial islands are found at different stages of development; 19 reclamations were completed, while five were halted under regulatory pressure. This mixed-method research probes the reasons behind the life and death of these mega artefacts in China. First, urban design schemes of selected cases were collected from websites of municipal governments and design agencies for morphological analysis; second, an in-depth screening of laws and decrees regulating reclamation from central and municipal governments was conducted for text-based policy analysis; third, this research used semi-structured interviews to extract relevant information from multiple stakeholders, including residents, designers, and policymakers. The results reveal the multi-facet nature of artificial island reclamation in China. The power dynamics between the central and municipal governments are the fundamental forces in shaping these islands. Strategies of land finance which account for the accelerating urbanization in China were implemented to boost real estate development on man-made land. Due to the current assessment system, municipal governments were keen to land-making for a short-sighted revenue. The retake of discretion related to reclamation issues of the central government reflected mutated considerations on economic and ecological sustainability. The discussion focuses on the unfiltered transnational migration of ideas that allow the adoption of a hyper-capitalistic model of land making for real estate value extraction in the context of China. This research advocate for a contextual adaptation of ideas within the dynamic globalized network of knowledge production in urban planning.