Author Archives: Adam Mayer

Local Debt Adding Fuel to Bearish Outlook on China

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Credit rating agency Moody’s recently released a report claiming that Chinese financial auditors have understated local government debt by half a trillion dollars. This is no small estimate, and the thought of so many non-performing loans on bank balance sheets is enough to make any seasoned investor bearish on China.

Of course, the majority of debt is fueled by lending that is going to local provincial and municipal governments and developers to fund new infrastructure and building projects. Banks are making these loans because of direct orders from the top-level of China’s central government. These orders were stepped up significantly after the 2008 world financial crisis to keep the country’s growth engine humming along as the export market fell off a cliff. Continue reading →

Beijing to Shanghai High-Speed Rail Opens

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Photo by bennettdesign

China’s ambitious high-speed rail program inaugurated perhaps its most important line yesterday: Beijing to Shanghai. The train made its debut on the eve of the 90th anniversary of the founding of China’s Communist Party with Premier Wen Jiabao onboard declaring the line ‘in operation’.

The trip linking China’s two largest cities takes just under 5 hours and scheduled trains will make stops along the way in Tianjin, Jinan and Nanjing. Continue reading →

Smith + Gill Win Competition to Design Greenland Center in Wuhan

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Back in December we mentioned the plans to build a supertall building in Wuhan (Wuhan To Get World’s 3rd Tallest Skyscraper) but had no further information about the design. Now we have confirmation that Chicago-based architecture firm and supertall building experts Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill have won the competition to design the Greenland Center in Wuhan.

According to the press release, the Greenland Center is set to rise to a height of 606 meters (1,998 feet), making it a the third-tallest building in China and the fourth-tallest in the world. The developer, Greenland Group, previously worked with Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill on another supertall tower in China, the Nanjing Greenland Financial Center. Continue reading →

Fake European Villages in China

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‘British Style’ Villa in China

China is known as the world’s hub for production of fake goods. Counterfeiting everything from electronics to clothing and more sinisterly, drywall and milk powder, is an ongoing problem that needs to be addressed. Fortunately the Chinese government is becoming more active in cracking down on individuals involved in intellectual property theft and the production of harmful goods.

Counterfeiting also happens at the urban scale in China. Recently developers from Guangdong Province have taken to planning an exact replica of the Austrian Alpine village of Hallstatt.

Unlike producing fake consumer goods,  the legality of appropriating architectural styles from overseas is not clearly defined. In the case of Hallstatt there may be some legal grounds against the Chinese developers due to the village’s status as a UNESCO Heritage site. Continue reading →

Shaun Rein Gets It

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As more economists jump on the China bubble bandwagon, reliable information about the country’s state of development is becoming more difficult to come by. Anecdotes about empty buildings, empty trains, and just all around emptiness abound from China bears. I have no idea where these observations come from given the overwhelming falsity of some of these claims.

Neither does Shaun Rein over at Forbes. In a piece titled “Nouriel Roubini Is All Wrong About China“, Rein takes the famed economist to task by picking apart Roubini’s observations about ’empty trains’ and ’empty roads’ between Shanghai and Hangzhou. Continue reading →