Xi Jinping’s techno-socialist utopia, called the Xiongnu New Area, is the old wine of Chinese urbanization that relies on huge amounts of government money pouring in to spur development. The delay in the project shows how China’s growth story is going through a crisis – with Xi’s reputation at stake.
Xi in May of early for the Xiong’an project to counter speculation about a delay in the construction of the city. To make his point about its importance, Xi took with him three members of the Politburo Standing Committee: Ding Xuxiang, Li Qiang and Cai Qi.
The construction of the project is taking place under the direct supervision of the Central Committee and State Council of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
During his May visit, Xi described the idea of the project as “perfectly correct”. XinhuaTo end speculation of the city turning into a doomed project.
“The construction of Xiong’an New District is a millennium plan and a major national event. We should neither be impetuous nor wait for what we want. We should work hard and work hard for a long time.’ Said,
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digital city
Launched in 2017 as Xi’s pet urban project, Xiong’an has faced delays and limited progress despite talk of turning the area into the next Shenzhen or Shanghai.
Xiong’an is located 100 km southwest of Beijing in the Baoding region of Hebei province. The 1,770 sq km city is expected to serve as the hub of new economic activities.
The city will be completely electric driver-less buses, who are currently undergoing trial. Xi wants to make Xiong’an a truly digital city sensor Embedded to monitor traffic and people at every corner.
The main rationale of the project was to address Beijing’s traffic problems by relocating ‘non-essential’ departments or ‘non-capital works’ from central Beijing to the Xiongnan area by 2035. move as well.
But the growth of the city has been relatively modest. Doubts about the success of Xi’s pet project surfaced during his last visit to the downtown area in May 2019.
In May, Xi visited some areas of the project that are ready to show that the city is slowly coming to fruition.
“…good roads have yet to be built between the three counties that make up Xiong’an—Anxin, Rongcheng and Xiong. The location looks more like a construction site than a city on par with Shenzhen, the built-from-scratch business center to which it is often compared,” informed of economist,
Investment in fixed assets in the Xiong’an project rose 16.8 percent year-on-year – a relatively modest increase. But investments by Chinese high-tech companies in the sector registered a year-on-year increase of 464.2 percent – marking some positive signs.
“It is necessary to build the Xiong’an area into a high-end, high-tech industrial cluster so that visitors from all walks of life can feel the new modern atmosphere of Xiong’an New Area when they come to Xiong’an,” Xi Jinping said during his visit to the city. Said.
Xi wants high-tech companies to move some of their operations to the Xiong’an region to reduce excessive reliance on the Pearl River Delta region – including Shenzhen and Pudong, Shanghai’s financial district.
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prestige project
The construction cost of the project has already exceeded 540 billion yuan ($78 billion) and is significant Expenditure The city project is yet to be completed. This is likely to gobble up another pool of money before the area can be made livable. Tech companies visiting the site will seek government support to enhance their operations.
The status of the project gives us a peak into the rising systematic risk in the Chinese economy.
According As far as wall street journalThe latest data suggest that China may not meet the five percent growth target set by Beijing for this year, and growth could be as low as two or three percent.
Despite much speculation, the savings during COVID-19 are not being exposed as exponential consumption after China lifts the restrictions. People are saving more and more instead of spending.
Xi Jinping views the city as part of his ‘universal prosperity’ agenda to redistribute the population of the Beijing area into a more spacious urban sprawl. But references to ‘general prosperity’ have gradually disappeared from Xi’s speeches since the project was launched in 2017.
The conflict between Xi’s message on ‘general prosperity’ and the need to revive consumer spending is forcing the Chinese public to save rather than spend their cash.
Not long ago, that world saw Evergrande Group, China’s leading property developer, almost on the brink of collapse.
Today, thousands of residential and commercial skyscrapers in China are pulled down due to lack of demand or financial difficulties. Visuals of giant skyscrapers being pulled to the ground are very common on Chinese social media platforms.
Xi’s reputation is at stake with the Xiong’an project. The failure of the project would signal a collective failure for the CCP – and more personally for Xi.
The writer is a columnist and freelance journalist. He was previously China media correspondent with the BBC World Service. He is currently a MOFA Taiwan Fellow based in Taipei and tweets @aadilbrar. Thoughts are personal.
(Editing by Therese Sudip)