Strategic inaction and the limits of green state entrepreneurialism

Abstract

This article critically examines the 10th China Flower Expo as an emblematic case of green state entrepreneurialism in practice. Promoted as a flagship ecological event to advance Chongming Island’s transformation into a “world-class ecological island,” the Expo ultimately functioned less as a vehicle for sustainability transition than as a staged performance of green legitimacy, punctuated by short-term accumulation and long-term deferral. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and an integrated analytical framework that combines green state entrepreneurialism, strategic inaction, and urban political ecology, this study unpacks how ecological discourses are mobilized through mega-events to attract investment, restructure space, and consolidate state authority—while deferring substantive socio-ecological transformation. We argue that the post-Expo stagnation does not simply reflect implementation failure or greenwashing but reveals a deeper logic of risk-averse environmental statecraft. Through symbolic compliance and selective follow-through, the local state maintained the appearance of green commitment while avoiding structural changes. By foregrounding the role of strategic inaction as a mode of governance, this article contributes to critical debates on authoritarian environmentalism and urban sustainability transitions. It highlights how green entrepreneurialism, far from overcoming ecological crises, may entrench uneven socio-environmental outcomes and reproduce the contradictions it claims to resolve.