This is an earlier version of the idea of party-state urbanism that I later refined and extended in my book project. 

In this paper, I explored what is distinct about Chinese urban governance. Classic theories predict that when the central state retreats from resource allocation, capacity-strained local governments must form alliances with non-state actors, thereby diluting state power. In China, however, state power remains dominant despite decentralization. Analytically separating the Party from the state reveals that continued predominance of the party-state rests on a threefold configuration: (1) local governments do form alliances, but top-down, campaign-style mobilization through Party institutions can dissolve alliances and discipline bureaucrats; (2) this hierarchy of control ensures that local officials prioritize upward accountability over local alliances; and (3) anticipating the fragility of alliances, local states anticipatorily build capacity to obtain steering power over their local partners. I call this configuration ‘party-state urbanism’ and demonstrate it through a case study of Shenzhen. Initially lacking infrastructural power, the municipal state allied with indigenous villages, tolerated their autonomy and delegated governance duties while gradually expanding capacity by co-opting village institutions. This allowed the municipal state to subordinate the villages at low political cost when Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign turned bureaucrats against villages. I conclude by underscoring the importance of party politics for understanding urban governance in China and beyond. 

Wen, Yunhan. 2026. “PARTY-STATE URBANISM: Coevolution of Local State Capacity and Strategic Alliances in Shenzhen.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. doi:10.1111/1468-2427.70089.

The renewal practice of Shenzhen’s urban villages (Chengzhongcun) is not merely a transformation of physical space but also an evolutionary journey of awakening social rights consciousness. By retrospectively examining seminal cases over the past two decades, this paper delineates a progressive trajectory of social intervention. It begins with the contestations over the realization of property interests in Gangxia and early-stage Baishizhou, reflecting the primal drive for land value release in early renewal initiatives. It then identifies the preservation of Hubei Old Village as a pivotal turning point, where professional intervention catalyzed a shift toward urban cultural publicness. Finally, the discourse culminates in the explicit discussion of the housing rights of the floating population, triggered by the Baishizhou eviction crisis. This progression outlines a social landscape of Shenzhen’s urban governance as it transitions from a paradigm of "efficiency first" toward one of "spatial justice." The paper concludes that urban villages are not isolated physical entities but urban social structures deeply embedded in the urban-rural dual system. Only by situating these spaces within the broader mechanisms of urban political economy and trans-regional mobility can urban renewal evolve from technically-oriented physical renovation into a practice addressing social structure and public responsibility.

Deng, Shijie, and Yunhan Wen. 2026. “Social Intervention Practices in Shenzhen Urban Village Renewal: Incremental Property Rights, Culture, and Residence Rights.” World Architecture Review 1(227):44–50. [邓世杰、温蕴涵. 2026. 《深圳城中村更新的社会介入实践——递进的产权、文化与居住权》. 《世界建筑导报》, 2026年第1期（总第227期）: 44–50.]

Wide-scale availability of antiretroviral treatment (ART) has transformed the global landscape for HIV prevention, shifting emphasis away from a strictly behavioral focus on changing sexual practices towards a biomedical approach. Successful ART management is measured by an undetectable viral load, which helps maintain overall health and prevent onward viral transmission. The latter utility of ART, however, must be understood in the context of its implementation. In South Africa, ART has become easily accessible – yet ART knowledge spreads unevenly, while counseling advice and normative expectations and experiences of gender and aging interact to inform sexual practices. As ART enters the sexual lives of middle-aged and older people living with HIV (MOPLH), a population growing rapidly, how has it informed sexual decisions and negotiations? Drawing on in-depth interviews with MOPLH on ART, corroborated with focus group discussions and national ART-related policies and guidelines, we find that for MOPLH, sexual decisions increasingly feature compliance with biomedical directives and concern for ART efficacy. Seeking consensus regarding the biological risks of sex on ART becomes an important feature of sexual negotiations, and anticipated disagreements can pre-empt sexual relationships altogether. We introduce the concept of biomedical bargains to explain what happens when disagreements arise, and the terms of sex are negotiated using competing interpretations of biomedical information. For both men and women, ostensibly gender-neutral biomedical discourses provide new discursive resources and strategies for sexual decisions and negotiations, yet biomedical bargains are still embedded in gender dynamics—women invoke the dangers of jeopardizing treatment efficacy and longevity to insist on condoms or justify abstinence, while men utilize biomedical arguments in an effort to render condomless sex safe. While the full therapeutic benefits of ART are critical for the efficacy and equity of HIV programs, they will nonetheless always affect, and be affected by, social life. 

Angotti, Nicole, Sanyu A. Mojola, Yunhan Wen, and Abby Ferdinando. 2023. “Biomedical Bargains: Negotiating ‘Safe Sex’ on Antiretroviral Treatment in Rural South Africa.” Social Science & Medicine 330:116036. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116036.