Interesting report by Xinhua, China’s national news agency, over the weekend. The story describes how the authorities have decided to suspend work on a $5 billion Maglev train that would have cut journey time between Shanghai and the lake resort city of Hangzhou to around half and hour. I currently takes more than two hours, so it would have been a huge improvement. What’s intriguing is the fact that the report specifically says the project was halted because of concerns expressed by local residents about the possible effects on their health from the powerful magnets used to keep the train floating above the rails. An anonymous pregnant lady who is one of those petitioning for the project to be suspended is even featured in the piece, which also states that “The local government has been under huge pressure over the past months, with crowds of petitioners knocking at their doors every day and thousands of complaints received online. The Minhang District government alone received more than 5,000 petitioners in a single day in March.”
The project was a huge white elephant anyway (as the story notes, a non-maglev high speed train would cost half as much and only add seven minutes to travel time). But it’s rare to see an official account like this that might be taken as encouraging public protest, which after all could encourage the “social instability” that Beijing fears so much. Perhaps the press is underlining the fact that it was protests by ordinary Chinese that brought about the change to stress the government’s responsiveness to public concern, even in big ticket projects like this one. Actually, the authorities in Chinese are displaying much greater flexibility and responsiveness. Take the 180 degree turnaround on the AIDs issue for example. I do have the nagging suspicion though that –given concerns about cost and safety, they were ready to dump this project anyway. I also wonder whether, if the government had decided to stick to its decision, all those petitions would have made the slightest bit of difference.