In today’s China, a $2.4-billion spending plan from a city of two million people that few foreigners could place on a map raises few eyebrows. Xiangtan’s investment wish-list has more to recommend it than some of the $1 trillion or so of multi-year projects announced over the last few months. But like them, it reflects China’s development stresses.
Xiangtan’s big plans are less ambitious than some. Consider the $16 billion scheme from Kaifeng, population five million, to lure tourists by turning a rundown urban district into a reconstruction of a town from the Song Dynasty (960-1,127). Or grand construction plans from Ningbo, Nanjing and Changsha.
Most of these have three common features. First, they are trying to catch a few drops from an expected wave of central government stimulus. The authorities in Beijing are anxious to keep GDP growth from slowing too much and local authorities are all too happy to help with big investments.
Second, Xiangtan and its peers are planning to deploy massive amounts of concrete and labour. A new highway, school and drainage system will require both. That could be a problem, since such monumental projects may make the country too infrastructure-heavy. But politicians are less afraid of that sort of macroeconomic tension than of the political tension which slower growth and fewer jobs might create.
Finally, Xiangtan shows the usual Chinese desire to cater the rapidly growing number of domestic tourists. Xiangtan’s main attraction, though, shows another sort of tension – over China’s history. The local government wants to enlarge a museum dedicated to the city’s most famous resident, Mao Zedong.
Although the commercial case is strong — Mao’s tomb continues to pull crowds in Beijing — the authorities in Beijing might not be keen. The Great Helmsman is out of favour. Former rising star Bo Xilai’s fondness for Mao-era songs may have contributed to the Chongqing party chief’s political fall.
But times change. A future government might decide that Mao’s nationalism and imagination matter more than his excesses and failures. Xiangtan could be buying a cheap option on the changing direction of the Chinese past.