This article discusses the development of China’s modern cities and China’s emerging urban planning and growth management programs related to implementing its newly established sustainable development policies. Global sustainable development issues are discussed in the comparative context of future growth and urban development in the United States and China. Issues such as urban sprawl, density of the built environment, energy policy, automobile use, and transportation planning are examined in relation to future urban development and to their potential impact on future resource and energy consumption, and the critical issues of peak oil, global warming, and climate change.

The article notes that, despite China’s policy to encourage automobile ownership, China’s urban planning policies seem intent on avoiding development of a completely automobile dependent economy and culture as now exists in the United States. The article concludes with the observation that growth management and energy policies in both the United States and China appear to be on a collision course with the new global energy and environmental realities of the twenty-first century. In this process, China is clearly in a position to learn and benefit from the experience of the United States in regard to the energy, environmental, and urban planning policies reflected in our local growth management and land development regimes. Perhaps, we may also learn something from China.