Is China Making the Rent Gap Theory Untrue? Lessons from Nanjing

In the past decade, the Chinese state seems to have moved away from its previously dominant urban development characterized by dispossession and displacement. It now appears less unscrupulous in exploiting rent gaps and seemingly attaches greater importance to extra-growth goals in urban development such as de-commodification, use value creation and equality. This article examines two such state-led interventions: micro-regeneration practices that renovate dilapidated neighbourhoods while avoiding displacement en masse and initiatives to minimize education-based gentrification. Using examples from Nanjing, the article shows how both were limited and partial. Although local governments were enthusiastic about micro-regeneration, their practices largely depended on public subsidies. Efforts to counter education-led gentrification, on the other hand, were undermined by a lack of political will to unsettle vested power structures and contradictory policies. Therefore, China is not making the rent theory untrue.