The multi-scalar politics of urban greening in Forest City, Malaysia

Forest City is a new city project being built from scratch on four artificial islands off the coast of Malaysia by one of China?s largest property developers. Designed to accommodate up to 700,000 people, Forest City is created by and for Chinese nationals as a gated, luxury enclave in Malaysia. While Forest City is built on top of Malaysia?s largest seagrass field and destroys or damages coastal mangroves, the project is branded as a futuristic model green city, featuring dramatic green walls and lush gardens with intricate planting. The project is conceived as a superstructure, with the surface of the city dedicated to parks and gardens, recreational uses, and pedestrians and cyclists, while car traffic and parking is supposedly relegated underground. Building on recent critical scholarship on urban greening and colonial greening approaches, this article examines the power dynamics and multiscalar politics of urban greening in a new foreign-built green city. Beyond simply reflecting a growing global enthusiasm for nature in cities, Forest City strategically promotes a particular narrative of urban greening as a way to preclude criticism while serving the project?s economic and geopolitical goals.