Mobilities justice in China

Author: Hongkai Yao

Tutor: Elena Pascolo

Abstract: In this paper, the author will argue that mobility justice matters in the post-carbon,
unequal and information period, and the unbalance among mobilities challenges this
justice. In other words, the author will extend Mimi Sheller's MOBILITY JUSTICE to a more
precise argument, which is it is the gap of the different circulation speed that cause
problems such as inequalities, energy waste, etc. The author will start from the Prohibition
of incest in South Africa and argue that this "segregation" still exists all over the world but
only camouflages in different appearances and different scales. Then critical thinking of
Taobao Village in china will be used to explain this segregation argument from the
perspective of circulation(education, knowledge, labor and capital). Several more cases in
the different scales(the yellow River flooding area immigrant and the pure river Bay Area,
etc.) will be studied to prove that it is the obligation to aware of the speeds of the mobilities
and the solution of inequalities, development and the environmental problem is the achieve
of mobility justice(by balancing the various speeds). The relevant books such as mobility
justice and working report or plan published by the Chinese government or world bank will
be mentioned during the case study.
Keywords: mobility justice, Segregation, environmental immigrant, knowledge education,
poly-centries

Introduction: Mobilities Justice is one of the great perspectives to understand and to deal
with the problematic anthropology, economic and environmental issues. The definition of
mobility is not only physical transportation such as goods shipping and airline travel but
also the contribution of labor, the communication of knowledge and ideology, capital
transfer and distribution, etc. In the book mobility justice, Doctor Mimi Sheller tried to
analyze various kinds of justice via a constitution called mobility across scales. In this paper,
the author will extend her argument. The author will argue that we should be aware of the
mobilities speeds(more specifically speaking, the gap of speed). The paper will start from
the 'bantustans' in South Africa, cutting in from a perspective of mobility justice. The author
will argue that it is the unbalance circulation speed between labor and Appeal (political
distance and economic proximity) that challenges justice. Then the author aware that
Segregation (if we understand it in the enbalanbe circulation view) still exists all over the
world with different appearances and different scales. The author will analyze three groups
of mobilities injustice and how china put effort to solve them. The first mobility justice
focuses on the environmental topic which is flooding area along the yellow river, listing out
the financial circulation, agricultural circulation and immigration. The second mobility
justice will be relative to the educational and informational topic. The chunpu taobao village
and "tiktok influence" will be mentioned. The third mobility justice concerns urbanization
and polycentric transformation. The pure river cities circle will be studied.
1, Segregation and circulation
1.1, bantustans
Bantu homeland was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set
aside for black inhabitants of South Africa as part of its policy of apartheid. The author
totally disagrees with all these kind of Inequalities and show great respect to those who
fight against it for the human being. But as an architect, the author will always try to clarify
the factors behind the phenomenon and deal with this problem in a workable way so that
the design method can be applied in other conditions. One of the perspectives of
Examining the apartheid is through mobility justice. "The most basic aspiration of the Boer
state is the dissociation of politics from economic relations, so that by means of 'bantustans'
or 'homelands' the black African population can be suspended in a condition of
simultaneous political distance and economic proximity vis-a-vis the white metropolis."1
Nick Land, a British philosopher, pointed out that the inequalities cannot be merely
understood as political distance but are supposed to be understood as a pair term(political
distance and economic proximity). Latter Nick proposes his contention that "the Third
World as a whole is the product of a successful—although piecemeal and largely
unconscious—'bantustan' policy on the part of the global Kapital metropolis." The trick that
keeps this unfair system work is the " flow of labor" in one direction and the "export of
political instability" in the reverse direction. Two inspired ideas can be learned from Nick.
The first idea is the analogy from the national scale to the international scale. Secondly, he
clarified the factor of the circulation and made it clear that circulation does not always
represent justice.

Following Nick's s logic, we can make this model clear by defining the Bipolar of the
circulation and tracing the speed(the reverse direction can be considered as negative
speed). For example, the crux of apartheid is the unbalance speed between the labor flow
and the political association. So there would be two approaches to balance the speed. The
first solution was the end of apartheid, allowing all the factors to flow in the nation. Because
only development can resolve developing problems, or we can shut down the economic
and labor connection between the white and black, which is a kind of undetected
disconnection existing for millions of years before navigation age). Obviously, the second
solution sounds clownish. Nevertheless, the author will argue that this circulation
perspective and thinking model is meaningful.

1.2 Mobility Justice

In the book Mobility justice, Sheller defines mobility as not only transportation but also the
flow of labor, the communication of knowledge and idea, capital transfer and distribution,
etc. A similar definition comes from Kaufmann and Montulet "the manner in which an
individual or group appropriates the field of possibilities relative to movement and uses
them."2 The author agrees with their views.

1
Kant, Capital and Prohibition of Incest by Nick Land
2
Between social and spatial mobilities: The issue of social fluidity BY Kaufmann and Montulet
Then the question is what is mobility justice and why this justice became such essential.
"people have the right to move and not to move" Mimi Sheller points out that mobility justice
is a right of selection. She also explained that there are many kinds of justice, such as
environmental justice, climate justice, and special justice. Mobility justice is a tool and
constitution to integrate all kinds of justice and to embodied differences in class, gender,
race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and physical ability. And also, the term mobility justice
is a multi-scale concept (from bodied, street to urban and the planet).

2, three cases of circulation in china

2.1 Taobao Village
According to the 2020 working report published by Ally, since 2014, with the state e-country
project, the number of Taobao Village grows rapidly. By Sep. 2020, there are 5425 Taobao
villages within China. Another tendency of Taobao village is the intensification, reflecting
both in the number of Village groups(the village thrive by grouping together) and the
Trading volume(the bigger villages play the more important roles than the sum up of many
small Villages ).

The author considers the Taobao Village system as a Double-edged sword. On the one
hand, the Taobao village activates the countryside economy and offers a large number of
employments. But the main concern here is that, on the other hand, because of the Taobao
Village, many villagers were tracked in their area, especially those young labors. The e-
market system eventually causes a kind of national unconscious Segregation although it
works in a smooth way than Bantustan. Some may argue that the e-market system has
gradually replaced part of the role of the China Pass Policy, which is a debatable policy set
up to maintain stability. Other defenders may argue that this is the result of the free market,
which should be respected. The villagers were willing to stay because of the high Internet
sales income. The author wants to point out that firstly" there isn't such thing as free
market" or the Prohibition of child labor never make sense. And also, although the author
totally agrees with the stability, the essence of this National Security comes from the
balance of circulation (between capital and knowledge) in a long-term perspective. For
example, The intense price competition is organized by artificial intelligence armed with big
data, accelerating the Vicious competition and Metabolism while some young labors,
without well educated because of the short-term e-market interest Attractive, are not able
to recognize the chessboard and deal with the challenge.

The main point here is the concern of information and education. In other words, the
circulation of knowledge should be balanced with the speed of capital flows. The Chunpu
Village is a piece of good evidence. What makes this village with only 2800 population but
40 billion yuan sale volume annually become successful and distinctive is the former
experience and sensitive awareness of opportunity from those villagers who have been
sailing to big cities in the 1980s and 1990s. The Chunpu Community now highly admired
the importance of information and knowledge. They put great effort into building Schools
and e-commercial training centers. They also firmly encourage young adults to enter
university and gain experience outside the local area.

2.2 Yellow River Flooding area immigration

For thousands of years, the flooding area of the Yellow River, the second-longest river in
china, cause various problems (agriculture, immigrant, transport, housing). The most
suffered area is in Henan, Anhui and Shandong province. There was a historical reason
for it. In the Song dynasty, when the Central Chinese were unable to defend themselves
through merely military way, the emperor decided to dig the Embankment to create an
artificial flooding area to stop the attack from the north minority. This action totally changed
the course of the river from Shandong and Shandong province(north side) to the Jiangnan
area(south side). This situation is kept by the following china dynasties for transportation
reason because the unexpected effect what the changed river course connected with the
canal and to many extend benefit the cities which rely on shipping. It was till 1855, when
the Hewa embankment collapsed, that the yellow river was able to shift its way back to
north side provinces, submerging a large amount of area and causing refugees(those who
lived on this land since the Song dynasty) challenge. From then on, the locals lived with
the Periodic floods, planting crops and building villages in the potential flooding area. Bay
construction was prohibited by both the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China because,
in many decades, this area is considered a water discharge area for protecting "important"
cities. The people's Republic of China, to many extend, continued this method until the
2000s.

Immigration is the only workable choice which is good for human and nature considering
both economy and ecology perspectives. Research shows that the locals struggle in the
finance trap. "People had difficulties in housing, traveling, eating, drinking water and
schooling. They spend three years to save money, then three years to build the highland,
then another three years to build a house, and another three years to pay the loans."3
Ecologically speaking, there is an Irreconcilable contradiction between the flood and the
area. Unlike Nile River's s flood, which brings fertilizer to the field, the Yellow River only
brings sands and salinization, which are unsuitable for crops but, on the other hand, justice
for many other creatures. "The Yellow River beach area is rich in wetland ecological
resources and is the important ecological safety barrier."

However, it needs a lot of effort to work on the immigration process because, as mentioned
before, for individuals, "against immigration" is a kind of mobility justice.

2.3 the Great Bay Area

The Concept of "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area" (GBA) was mentioned
in the English version of China's 13th Five-Year Plan. Then two months later the
"Framework Agreement on Deepening Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macau Cooperation in

3
The working plan of immigration in the Yellow River Flooding area. Publish by Shandong Provincial
government
the Development of the Bay Area" was signed in Hong Kong. From within mobility
perspective, the construction of the Hongkong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge with many other
highways, railway and Smart Port can be mentioned. However, the author wants to link
GBA with another sub-plan mentioned in the 13th Five-Year Plan, which is the "poly-centers
and city groups." The author will argue that "cultivating some Regional sub-centers" and
"high lighting some important towns" is a kind of mobility justice.

Generally speaking, the government realizes the unstoppable tendency of over-

urbanization within only 40 years while the "urban transition" cannot catch up with this trend.
Immigration, environmental and Civil Fiscal debt were mention in the "New Opportunities
for China's Urbanization: Vision of the 14th Five-Year Plan" written by Tsinghua University.
This report also offers a "national urban system framework" to face this challenge, pointing
out that "urbanization transfer from coastal to the inland area" and "balance and tighten
nearby areas" as the ways to "release potentials". This working direction was later
confirmed by the Development and Reform Commission's Task published in 08,04,2021.
Three points can be the highlight in the Task. Firstly, the Promotion of agricultural migrants
into cities by loosing pass policy and offering education. Secondly, the circulation
infrastructure and the urban circle within 30mins/ three hours/ 8 hours. The last one is "to
strengthen the complexity and diversity" of the sub-center and important town (including
Taobao village). Thirty years ago, when Ram Kohhass did research in the pure river delta,
he found that "The explosion of Taobao triggered the construction of multistory factories
attached to the houses…They function as factory-IKEA-fullfillment center all in one, where
fabrication, slaes, and distribution presence of the sonsume large heaps of wood and sprit
out carboard flat packs awaiting delivery."4 Now the term "all in one" gains more meaning
than a single complete industry line, rather instead, become Compound industry. Poly-
centerizaion is a kind of justice.

4, Conclusion:
1, Mobility justice is far more than transportation justice.
2, Mobility justice is in multiple-scale.
3, Mobility injustice is not circulation blocked but circulation enbalance.
4, So sometimes the over-speed circulation is a kind of mobility injustice.
5, People has the right to move when they face natural and social challenge.
6, the way to solve mobility injustice is to clarify the speeds and balance them.
7, So there are ways to deal with the same injustice by accelerating or slowing down one
or various speeds.
8, The appearance of mobility justice is cooperation, education, innovation, complexity etc.

4
Villages with Chinese characteristics STEPHAN PETERMANN by Ram Koolhas
Bibliography:
1, Kant, Capital and Prohibition of Incest by Nick Land
2, Between social and spatial mobilities: The issue of social fluidity BY Kaufmann and Montulet
3, The Shandong Province working plan of immigration in the Yellow River Flooding area
4, Vision of the 14th Five-Year Plan, Tsinghua University&Hongkong University of Technology
5, Development and Reform Commission's Task
6, 14th Five-Year Plan
7, Villages with Chinese characteristics STEPHAN PETERMANN by Ram Koolhas
8, Mobility Justice, by Mimi Sheller
9, The Henan Province working plan of immigration in the Yellow River Flooding area
10, The mechanism of e-commerce association promoting the development of Taobao village
And its operating mechanism by Zeng Yiwu