What motivates China’s cities to establish partner agreements with cities in Asia
What motivates China’s cities to establish partner agreements with cities in Asia

Summary/Abstract: In ancient and medieval times, intensive relations between trading hubs shaped the world economy, mostly resulting from location advantages along trade routes. Some of these relations were based on institutional arrangements which might be considered the predecessors of sister city partnerships. After WWII, these partnerships played an important role in re-establishing people-to-people relations by cultural and educational exchanges. There is evidence that, with the ongoing globalization and urbanization, economic motives gain ground. Of particular interest are Chinese city partnership agreements in Asia, because they often have to balance divergent interests of the Chinese, as well as the partner city’s point of view. The paper aims to put this type of sub-national arrangement into the wider context of Chinese interest to strengthen its position in Asia. The paper concludes with recommendations for future theoretical and empirical research.

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