City Branding in Chinese Cities: From Tactical Greenwashing to Successful Industrial Transformation

Abstract

City promotion and branding have become increasingly popular in the past two decades or so. Chinese cities fully share in this trend. They have stepped up their use of a great variety of attractive city labels, such as eco-cities, low carbon cities, smart cities, knowledge cities and resilient cities to enhance their attractiveness to the outside world. These concepts reflect a desired shift from old and polluting manufacturing industries to new and clean service industries. But not all branding efforts are credible or successful; there are specific requirements for actually realizing the proclaimed industrial shift. This chapter aims to answer two questions: (1) What do city branding practices look like in a number of significant Chinese cities? (2) What is the credibility of these practices in terms of the proclaimed industrial transformation?.