City strategic coupling in practice: regional cooperation under the Greater Bay Area

Beyond a conventional, economically deterministic view of city-regions, this article introduces a city strategic coupling framework to recast cities as proactive, autonomous agents in orchestrating regional trajectories. It integrates state and market dynamics, moving beyond embedded statism to propel regional growth. The case of Shenzhen’s collaborations with neighbouring cities illustrates how urban centres leverage multi-stakeholder diplomacy to redefine regional integration. Within this strategic landscape, city-regions transcend a nation-state’s constructive paradigm as its constituent cities actively forge partnerships with other cities and global capital, synthesising diverse stakeholder imperatives to embed regional assets into global production networks to materialise shared development ambitions.