Xiongan, China’s “metropolis of the longer term” and a pet undertaking of Xi Jinping, the nation’s supreme chief, has turn into a byword for expensive self-importance initiatives. Central-government and provincial planners have spent not less than 835bn yuan ($116bn) on town since 2017, after they broke floor in what had been marshy farmland 125km south of Beijing. It has been touted as an answer to China’s city maladies, with residents promised quick commutes by leafy parks as an alternative of cough-inducing site visitors jams. Town is an element, officers say, of a “one-thousand-year plan” in civilisation-building. A e-book about Xiongan from a state writer lists its creation alongside the works of legendary emperors who supposedly lived 5,000 years in the past.
