The IHT has recently published a story on former Shanghai Party Chief Chen Liangyu, who was purged from his post and put under house arrest for his alleged involvement in the Shanghai Pension Fund Scandal (is it necessary to use the word "alleged" in China?).
It's been widely reported that Chen refused to cool Shanghai's hot property market under strict orders from the central government, which was one of many reasons for his downfall. Now it turns out Chen was interested in much more than just property, according to today's story in the IHT.
The "hai" in the word Shanghai means ocean, but the city had no beach, he would lament. So city officials built a 6-mile, or 10-kilometer, beach in the suburbs, using 128,000 tons of sand shipped in from southern China.Chen liked tennis, too, so a world-class tennis complex was built at a reported cost of $290 million, even though few Shanghai people play the game.
In a city where relatively few can afford to own personal cars, Chen's government built a $300 million racetrack that critics say is the fanciest on the Formula One circuit.
I am a fan of Shanghai, and this is perhaps a selfish thing to say: but I like the Forumla One track and the tennis center. Both venues have drawn world class sporting events to China. (As for the beach, well, I never made it while I lived there.) Oddly, while he's criticized for this, China is about to spend more on the Olympic games than any previous host country, ironically, building world class sports venues. Tough to single Chen out for this one.
But, the IHT article continues, the final nail in the proverbial coffin came with this:
...he proposed a $5 billion expansion of a magnetic levitation, or maglev, rail line to the neighboring city of Hangzhou, a widely criticized project that raised something relatively new for China: a storm of public protest.
I lived in Shanghai during this period of public protest, and I can attest that people were very angry and were not scared of venting their frustrations. In fact, while I was employed at Jongo News, I sent out our video team to do a story on this.
At the time, we interviewed people along the proposed route who complained mostly of noise pollution. The project, which would see a new $5 billion Maglev line link Shanghai with Hangzhou, was halted in May. And many believe it was a case of the government listening to protesters:
For many, the apparent demise of the project in the face of widespread public opposition marked the end of an era of glitz-driven development, with attendant opportunities for high-level corruption, and the beginning of a new one in which the voice of China's growing middle class can no longer be ignored."The public is concerned with the electromagnetism of the train and the government is studying this, and that is one of the reasons the project has been stopped," a People's Congress official was quoted as having said in the China Business Daily newspaper, one of many news reports that suggested that residents' complaints had played a major role in the suspension.
I am of two thoughts on this. One, this is a sign of new China. Residents here have become much more socially active, and no longer fear the government as much as they once did. This is a sign that China is moving down a path which will hopefully lead to more responsible development and engagement with residents.
Two... I can't help but admit that I wouldn't have minded the high-tech, fast connection between Hangzhou and Shanghai. One thing that has made China special is that it is free of feasibility studies, open houses, and compromises. Because it is a communist country, it can build the biggest, most elaborate, high-tech buildings or transportation infrastructure without any public accountability. This has led to many of Beijing's Olympic venues and the current Maglev in Shanghai.
It appears those days are over. And probably for the best.
