Introduction

With economic reform and the opening up of the country to the global economy, China has witnessed the entry and vigorous growth of an array of globalizing industries. A recent account of China's electronics industry compiled by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council observes that “Massive relocation of the global electronics production over the last decades has turned China into a world electronics factory, producing more than a quarter of the world's total output in value terms. China is the world's major producer of end-consumer products including AV equipment, computers and mobile phones” (HKTDC 2011a, p. 1).

Concurrent with industrial transformation in structural terms, a geographical bifurcation has taken place. While domestically-oriented industries continued to be quite widely distributed across the country, new export-oriented industrial agglomerations have developed in the coastal areas. A substantial volume of research has provided insights into the patterns, drivers and effects of industrial geographies, as seen in the first half of the previous decade (He Canfei 2009; He Canfei and Wang 2012; He Canfei et al. 2008; Fan and Scott 2003; Thun and Segal 2001; Thun 2004; Thun 2006, Wei et al. 2007; Wang and Lin 2008; and Wang and Mei 2009; Wang 2010).

The distribution of domestically-oriented industries in China has often been linked to entrepreneurial local governments coming to the fore in the 1980s and early 1990s coupled with deepening decentralization processes. In particular, the coastal agglomeration of export-oriented industries has been linked to several phenomena. The first is the top-down fostering of territorial complexes in the form of special economic zones (SEZs) and industrial parks (Zeng 2010). This reflects national industrial policy and planning as a determinant of location and regional industrial development. This has allowed initial growth following the establishment of firms from outside. The second is bottom-up industrial development as specialized industrial districts (often labelled as “clusters”) developed through locally-born firms, institutionally supported by the local state (Wang 2010, see also Gereffi 2009). Third, again at the local level, the engineering of agglomeration economies undergirded the effective operation of SEZs. Thus, there is agreement that, since decentralization measures were enacted, the sub-national level has substantially gained significance vis-à-vis the national level.