P!
And good luck with all of that substandard concrete and rebar.
We used to have money for public works. Then, we embarked on free trade and now the Chinese have all our money. Boy, is our government stupid!
Stimulus to nowhere.
China created the greatest freeway system in the world after the US to knit a growing nation together and to ease travel around a country in which prior to the 1980s, few people ever left their village. Its the concrete expression of China’s ditching of Maoism, with the ideological belief China should remain poor and equal than rich and powerful. Yes, the Communist Party is the ultimate power. But there is a vast and growing Chinese middle class and the question is when not if China will someday transition to democratic rule. This can’t be rushed.
When I was a college freshman back in 1963, my economics professor waxed long and poetic about the amazing economic development of the USSR under their enlightened communist system. Then in the 1980’s, we were told how the brilliant Japanese were buying up America and would dominate the world of the future.
Both examples show the value of predictions, but I will make one anyway. In 20 years, China will be an economic basket case. By then, the US will have passed through a dark time of violence and chaos and will have re-emerged as the worlds moral and economic leader.
Somewhere, Willie Green softly weeps.
I’ve been to mainland China several times over the years as a tourist. On each return, I was impressed by the new modern highways and traffic interchanges in and near the large cities. They may have overdone it with some of the high speed train lines but, I don’t think the roads and bridges are excessive.
Good surface transportation is important for business development. It gets goods to railheads and ports. We tourists like good roads as we spend a lot of time on buses. I also have been to India and its roads are very bad. Little is being done in India to keep up or build roads. They are letting the good train system the British built for them decline too. India will have trouble growing its economy without good roads and rails.