Kyle Jaros, University of Notre Dame

Despite the ubiquity of zone-style administrative entities in Chinese cities, scholars lack a clear understanding of how they fit into the fabric of urban governance. On the one hand, development zones and other functional areas seem to clutter an already fragmented urban governance landscape, making administrative coordination more difficult. On the other hand, however, zone-style entities may be capable of bridging between different local jurisdictions, functional systems, or levels of government in ways that ordinary administrative divisions and departments of Chinese cities struggle to do. To gain a clearer picture of how zones relate to the larger urban party-state apparatus and whether they promote or hinder governance integration, I examine the appointment and mobility patterns of zone and administrative subunit leaders from four major Chinese cities. Comparing zone and administrative subunit leaders and their rotation patterns, I find that on balance zone leaders exhibit closer career connections with other territorial units and administrative levels than subunit leaders. At the same time, I highlight variation across and within cities in the way zones and their leaders articulate with the larger party-state apparatus. This analysis calls attention to the importance and diversity of zone-style entities in China, and contributes to broader efforts to rethink multilevel governance.