Eko Atlantic City

Industrial Classification for Ocean Industries and Their Related Activities also in 2003, the first national level standard that formally references the Chinese marine industrial classification system to UN standards. In March 2007, the SOA issued the 2006 China Marine Economic Statistical Bulletin, releasing China’s GOP marine economic data for the first time. According to the 2006 bulletin, China’s GOP was RMB 1.841 trillion yuan ($269 billion), accounting for 4 percent of China’s GDP.23 A decade later, according to the 2016 bulletin, China’s GOP reached 7.051 trillion yuan ($1,030 billion), accounting for 9.5 percent of China’s GDP.24 Clearly the growth of the ocean economy outpaces that of the overall economy during this period. Some analysts have predicted that China’s GOP could account for 30 percent of the country’s GDP by 2050 (Yan, Fang, and Gao 2013). The similarity between the statistical trends for annual land reclamation and annual gross ocean product since 2000 is no coincidence. Land reclamation has played an important role in shaping China’s “blue economy.” The marine economy consists of an interconnected system of various ocean-related sectors and industries. Of the 12 major marine industrial sectors defined by the NSMC, land reclamation is closely associated with maritime communications and transportation, coastal tourism, and marine engineering construction, indeed these three sectors account for 79.3% of China’s total GOP according to 2016 data25 (Figure 15). Given that China’s “ocean century” vision is closely tied up with land financing and political promotion, coastal regions vie for economic power and international significance by rapidly expanding their territory and building out into the sea. According to 2012 data, China’s state council approved 2,469 km2 of the total 5,880 km2 of reclamation planned that year, an area approximately 3.4 times that of Singapore (Table 1). While some reclaimed areas are intended for agriculture and mariculture, most of them are allocated for urban, port, and coastal industrial expansion. Currently, 15% of all construction in China is in coastal regions, with 3% to 4% on reclaimed land.26 In addition to recognizing land reclamation as a tool for shaping the “blue economy,” we should also understand three issues related to its critical role linking land and water within the context of China’s recent marine focus: First, land reclamation showcases China’s ongoing efforts to dominate the natural environment, integrating five decades of experience and knowledge of reshaping the landscape throughout the country from its inland to its coastal regions. Since this new phase of Chinese history began in 1949, the received wisdom has been that China would pick itself up and regain its pre-eminent standing in the world, after its “long history of humiliation by imperialist pow-

ers.” To this end, a “war against nature” was launched, and Chinese proverbs such as “man must conquer nature” (人定勝天), were invoked to mobilize a “New China” where “the sky and the earth are turned upside down” ( 翻天覆地). Mass mobilizations and political campaigns were launched including the Hundred Flowers (百花齊放) movement in 1957, the Great Leap Forward (大躍進) from 1958 to 1962, the Cultural Revolution (g文化大革命) from 1966 to 1976, and the construction of a new inland strategic base area or “Third Front” (三線建設) from 1964 to 1980s. All these, along with population pressure and massive controversial hydroelectric projects, drastically affected the landscapes of China’s inland areas with far-reaching environmental consequences. The mission to reshape China’s coastal frontier through large-scale land reclamation in the 21st century, is considered to be as heroic as the construction of the Three Gorges Dam (三峽工程) in the 1990s, and the multi-decade South-North Water Transfer Project (南水北調) launched in the early 2000s. The reconfiguration of the land–water relationship is another highly visible display and celebration of national power in China’s ongoing nation-building story since 1949 Second, land reclamation is promoted as a marine-based solution to land-based problems, particularly those caused by extremely rapid urbanization since China’s Reform and Opening. In 1980, 19.6 percent of the Chinese population lived in urban areas surging to over 50 percent by 2011, a phenomenon accompanied by breakneck expansion of urban areas, with most cities tripling in size and coastal cities mushrooming by a multiple of 4 or 5. From the early 1980s to the late 1990s, state-led urbanization relied primarily on two land conversion processes, namely the appropriation of farmland in agricultural hinterlands, and the densification of urban areas by redevelopment. However, both these processes resulted in severe social, environmental, and economic problems that threatened social stability, leading to an urgent search for alternative land sources. As the world’s most populous country, China’s per capita arable land is only 43% of the world average, and the loss of agricultural land to urbanization seriously exacerbates this shortage. Densification through the process of urban housing demolition and relocation ( 拆遷), can often spark fierce conflicts between owners of private property rights and the public interest, and the economic cost of this process has skyrocketed since the late 1990s, especially for China’s already well-developed cities such as Qingdao, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. In China’s coastal provinces, despite the imposition of a sea-use fee as high as 1.8 million yuan/ha ($26.6 million/km2), coastal land reclamation works out to be a cheaper land sourcing option than farmland appropriation or urban regeneration. With urban sprawl already filling all easily available land space, nearby marine