A Tale of Two Cities: Hong Kong, Shanghai and the Global City Hypothesis

• In Event: 1249 - Global Communities

Abstract

As China’s economy continues to grow, and Shanghai’s role as the world’s gateway city becomes more prominent, there is an active debate about whether it should be considered a top-level “global city.” A global city is the command center of the network of international/regional business exchanges (Sassen, 2000 and 2001). Some believe that Shanghai may soon supplant Hong Kong as the leading world city of China. Moving up the world city hierarchy is frequently seen as economically and geo-politically important because these (competing?) cities function as premier nodes for global network links to the giant, rapidly growing, economic dynamo of China, a growing magnet for wealth and power in the contemporary world-system.

Our study will explore this issue, but also attempt to plumb deeper ones about what it means to be a “global/world city” in terms of internal urban changes (related to the presence of multinational headquarters or regional offices, the rise of “financialization,” changes in sectoral economic output and the growth of “producer services”). How closely do Hong Kong and Shanghai hew to the expected trajectory according to the “global city hypothesis” (ala Sassen)? Are these two great Chinese global/world cities fundamentally “different” from what we would expect from that “model” and distinctive from world/global cities elsewhere?

In the end (we are in the process of collecting and analyzing data), we expect to find that Shanghai and Hong Kong play both competive and complimentary roles in the Chinese and world-economy. Our preliminary findings suggest that firms, both foreign multinationals and domestic ones, are locating their headquarters and major regional office in the two cities.

Authors

• Wai Kit Choi, California State University, Los Angeles

• Ben Leffel, University of California Irvine

• David A. Smith, University of California-Irvine