Chinese Factors in the Changes of Transborder City Hunchun: (New) Northeast Phenomenon and the 'San Hua San Dong' Strategy of Jilin Province 

Author: Park, Chulhyun (Kookmin University)

Page: 189-216

Abstract​​

This research criticizes previous researches which analyzed the changes of Hunchun city from the viewpoint of international forces and subjects like 「Tumen River Area Development Project」 and 「Great Tumen Initiative. Hunchun is not only located in the border region where China, Russia, North Korea, South Korea, and Japan encounter with each other, but also belongs to Jilin Province of China. Therefore, the changes of Hunchun city are not only decided by the international forces and subjects, but also by the complex influences of the domestic forces and subjects of Northeast region and Jilin Province of China. ‘International development discourse’ alone could make the vision of Hunchun city much positive, but it should be noted that Hunchun city is one of the Northeast region and Jilin Province cities which have been suffering ‘Northeast phenomenon’ and ‘New Northeast phenomenon’. In other words, we should pay attention to the fact that the domestic forces and subjects of Northeast region and Jilin Province are interacting with each other to influence the changes of Hunchun city. In this way, we could find much more complex feasibilities of the changes of Hunchun city, which are very different from the linear rosy vision that Hunchun city will become “a Shenzhen of the 21st century”.

Key Words

Hunchun, Northeast phenomenon, New Northeast phenomenon, Transborder city, International development discourse, Domestic problem discourse, Old Industrial Base​