China Briefing | Go big or go home: what plans for a 2,000 sq km metropolis say about Beijing’s power – and its ambitions

China’s leaders relish pointing out how the country’s socialist system is superior to capitalism in the way it can pool resources from all sides to accomplish big things.

On that score, they certainly have a list of stunning achievements to boast about.

In 2008 alone, China rallied national resources to host the successful Summer Olympics Games in Beijing, and organised a remarkable rescue and recovery operation in the wake of a powerful earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people in Sichuan ( 四川 ).

China also built the world’s biggest high-speed railway network in less than a decade and successfully implemented a grand scheme to divert water from the south to the northern parts of the country which suffer a chronic shortage of water. And when reports last week said a German airport had been mired in delays since its construction in 2006, Chinese media boasted that China had added 60 new airports in the same period.

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In turn, such achievements have been used to justify the grip of an authoritarian regime that can shun public consultations and brush aside reservations and resistance once it decides a major undertaking is for the greater good.