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308 Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

investment, this ranking matches that of their relative levels of industrial sulfur
dioxide (SO 2 ) emissions and industrial electricity usedwith the exception
only of Hefei, the capital city of Anhui Province. Explaining this exception is
the fact that Anhui has been the leading recipient of high-polluting migrating
investment, with its capital city of Hefei being the largest in-province recip-
ient, thus suggesting Hefei was the leading recipient of high-polluting in-
dustries expelled from coastal cities. The same is true for Anhui’s investment
in the local treatment of environmental pollution, for which Hefei is also the
largest recipient, making Hefei the region’s largest inflows of seemingly
opposing investments: high-polluting industries on the one hand, and invest-
ment in pollution treatment on the other.
This study frames Hefei leadership decision making as underpinned by
urban growth machine politics, in which profit motives are the primary cri-
terion for government decision making, and outlines the series of policy efforts
and adjustments undertaken by the Hefei government in the lead up to 2010,
through which the city thereafter achieved reduced industrial electricity use
and reduced industrial SO 2 emissions. It is argued that Hefei achieved these
improvements not only because of high provincial-level public investment in
pollution treatment, but also because the city’s basic economic growth needs
were satisfied through its massive inflows of migrating high-polluting indus-
trial investments, thus overcoming the development demands of urban growth
machine politics. The similarly striking impact of per capita income on central
capital cities’ ability to achieve sustainable transitions is also discussed.
This study is organized as follows: Green Urban Planning provides a
background on environmental protection-related underpinnings of the 11th and
12th Five Year Plans, trends of green urbanization during these periods in
China, and the indices developed to measure Chinese city environmental
sustainability. Dueling Investments presents inflows of migrating high-
polluting industrial investment into the central provinces and relative levels
of pollution and energy consumption indicators among central capital cities,
and discusses urban growth machine politics in China. Hefei’s Green Tran-
sition describes in detail the environmental protection policy efforts leading up
to 2010, the subsequent environmental impacts, and implications for urban
growth politics. This study concludes with a discussion of the relationship
between interregional migrating high-polluting industries and sustainable re-
form in conditions of regional development inequality and the future trajectory
of sustainable development into China’s western region.

GREEN URBAN PLANNING

In 1992 the former Ministry of Construction (today, Ministry of Housing and
Urban and Rural Development) began to biennially select and praise “National
Garden Cities” nationwide that had perceptibly high standards of sanitation
and housing security, the first batch of which was Hefei, Beijing, and Zhuhai