Just goes to show how little most people know about China. China didn’t go communist until 1949.
I do agree that it is a terrible terrible waste of money. For 40 Billion USD, China could have built an additional 40 nuclear attack submarines, 1000 fighter aircraft, or over 10000 tanks. Those would have been a lot more useful than throwing money away for facilities that won’t get much use. Though to be fair much of the spending on infrastructure upgrades such as the airport, subways, roads, etc. will be useful. Still not as useful as 10000 tanks though...
Thanks for the correction. I should have recalled my grade school report on Chiang Kai-shek. However, in learning a bit more right now I was thinking (and guessing at the date)more of the end of the dynasties in China. (From a search - Qing Dynasty in 1911 - thanks to your prompting).