On deep urbanisation: Defining and reframing people-centred urbanisation in China’s new era

China’s urbanisation is entering a new era. For decades, its development was measured by quantitative metrics: the percentage of non-agricultural population, the expansion of built-up land, GDP growth, etc. This model, while delivering extraordinary economic transformation, has also generated significant social and environmental costs. To address the challenges, China’s ‘second half’ of urbanisation necessitates a paradigm shift towards a ‘deep’ and ‘people-centred urbanisation’. To decode it, we first need to deconstruct the contested concept of the ‘urban’, linking to the classic definitions of Louis Wirth as well as the contemporary critiques of Neil Brenner, challenging the validity of demographic metrics. In this light, I propose to conceptualise people-centred urbanisation not as the attainment of a demographic benchmark, but as an ongoing, multi-dimensional process. This process should be assessed through indicators of human well-being: social integration, economic security, cultural and psychological belonging, political participation, and environmental justice. Drawing from recent practices and challenges observed in selected megacities, I argue that realising deep and people-centred urbanisation requires a structural reorientation of state policy – from prioritising land and capital to genuinely investing in people. This reorientation must cultivate an urbanism that is not only smart and sustainable, but also just and humane.