[LINK] "A view of Shanghai"

[rfmcdonald]

Over at his blog, Gideon Rachman starts a discussion about the health of the Chinese economy by looking at the state of things in Shanghai.

I’m sure it is all too easy to be swept up by Shanghai fever. The view from the bar on the 87th floor of the Shanghai World Financial Centre – otherwise known as the “Mori building”, after the architect - is quite stunning. Around you are the soaring skyscrapers of the new Pudong district, which barely existed a decade ago. On the other side of the bend in the river is the Bund, the graceful stretch of buildings which defined pre-war Shanghai. The most famous landmark on the Bund is the old HQ of the HongKongShanghai Bank, with its graceful cupola. These days HSBC are in a new tower in Pudong – and they are about to move into an even bigger skyscraper later this year. Shanghai is in the midst of a building frenzy. The Mori building is currently the tallest in China, but will soon be eclipsed by a rival next door. The new airport – in which I am spending rather more time than I’d hoped – is vast. No fewer than eight subway lines are currently under construction, in preparation for next year’s Shanghai Expo. And the lines that are already running are clean, quick and efficient.

[. . .]

The new Mori building is splendid – but only about a third of it is said to be rented. The gyrations of the stock market are hardly reassuring. The run-up earlier this year may reflect all the excess cash sloshing around the system, after the government’s stimulus package. But it’s not clear that this will be enough to compensate for the hammer blows to export industries. That is why the report from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, claiming 40m job losses since the onset of the recession, is a useful corrective to euphoria induced by a view of Shanghai from a great height, with a beer in your hand.

Thoughts?