These sound like a lot of London's new build complexes. I imaging China's are bigger, but as you say, "self contained walled apartment communities with multiple building surrounding a courtyard/common area".
The closest London has to this is the Barbican from the 60’s, which is still mostly open to the public, or Georgian squares with gardens in the centre closed to the public, which still have road access between the houses and gardens. Large new developments like Nine Elms, Greenwich Peninsula and Elephant and Castle as far as I know always have public thoroughfares. I can’t think of any recent development that could be described as a superblock or a gated community.
London does have a lot more open space which is in fact privately owned, which limits your rights in that space, but that is a separate issue.
London does have a lot more open space which is in fact privately owned, which limits your rights in that space, but that is a separate issue.