Smart City Initiatives in American and Chinese Cities: A Comparison

By comparing four American cities and four Chinese cities with advance level of smart city implementation that represented the countries’ major geographic regions, Hu and Zheng (2021) compares the similarity and difference of these two countries that have differing legal, political and institutional elements. First of all, there is a difference in the approach that technology is used in both countries. The US cities tends to use technology to transform the way business are conducted, while Chinese cities are emphasising on the improvement of public service. Smart City in Chine also underscore the importance of promoting the technology industry. While in the US, Smart Cities focus on benefiting the open data from their technology. 

In terms of policy context, Chinese cities received greater support with better policy framework from the central government and funding. While cities in the US face challenges with local municipalities finding difficulties in getting federal support for their Smart City Initiatives. In the aspect of infrastructure development, Chinese cities are heavily reliant on the government as part of their responsibility, while American cities leverage resources from both public and private sectors. Lastly, from the governance viewpoints, we see more participatory approach implemented in the US, while in China formal power structure with clearly defined roles and responsibility are more apparent with its hierarchal model of governance.

Reference:

Hu, Q., & Zheng, Y. (2021). Smart city initiatives: A comparative study of American and Chinese cities. Journal of Urban Affairs, 43(4), 504-525.

‍