Traditional urban redevelopment institutions in China—characterized by top-down state control and the exclusion of residents—frequently triggered intense public resistance and social instability. In response, the Chinese state has initiated a participatory institutional transformation by formally incorporating residents into the decision-making process, aiming to mitigate opposition to forced evictions, inadequate compensation, and broader social unrest. These reform initiatives have led to changes in institutional procedures and participation mechanisms and, consequently, reconfigured power relations among stakeholders. Building on Giddens’ structuration theory, Foucault’s conceptualization of power, and Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development framework, this book develops a “power arena” analytical framework to examine stakeholders’ power dynamics in participatory urban redevelopment. The findings reveal that recent policy reforms and associated institutional adjustments have granted individual property owners greater voice in decision-making and enabled emergent forms of community agency that, to some extent, constrain local government authority. Nevertheless, the local state retains significant capacity to steer, coordinate, and manipulate other actors, thereby maintaining a dominant position across multiple dimensions of power relations. Expectations of a shift toward genuinely collaborative governance have thus not been fully realized—particularly in contexts where direct government intervention is ostensibly absent. Rather than producing a flat or decentralized power structure, participatory redevelopment in China reproduces a hierarchical configuration, with state power firmly positioned at the apex. In conclusion, China’s institutional reforms appear less oriented toward establishing a genuinely participatory governance system than toward managing social resistance and facilitating smoother urban redevelopment. Ultimately, these reforms serve to reinforce—rather than diminish—state control over urban land and development processes. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex power relations underpinning urban transformation and offers insights into how evolving planning policies shape urban governance in authoritarian contexts.