Ecological Statecraft for Hegemonic Visions: The Governance of Chengdu Eco‐Zone Over Two Decades

ABSTRACT

This study advances urban political ecology (UPE) by examining how ecological space production has become a key terrain for pursuing a hegemonic project of ecological civilisation in China. ‘Ecological statecraft’ provides a framework for examining how the ecological visions are materialised in the Chengdu Eco‐Zone. The area transformed from a landscape of mixed villages and construction in the 2000s to a hybrid of greenways and farmlands in the 2020s. These dramatic ‘shifts’ reveal a persistent logic of the ruling party, even as specific visions are continually reshaped in response to changing domestic and external conditions. Our analysis situates state politics within broader UPE debates, particularly historical materialist and Southern everyday‐state perspectives, and brings them into dialogue with Chinese UPE scholarship on state power, land politics and ecological territorialisation. In particular, combining statecraft and everyday‐state perspectives reveals how state‐dominated ecological governance is increasingly co‐shaped by grassroots interests and practices.