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Demolition of half-built twin towers hotel shows consequences of unchecked power
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THE explosion that brought down twin buildings of an unfinished hotel was the death knell of Fang Xiping’s career.
According to media reports, the ex-Party chief of Huainan City, Anhui Province, has been investigated for severe disciplinary violations since August 11. And the reason for his downfall might well be the fact that he abused power in ordering the demolition of the Guanhu Guoji project, the only five-star hotel in Huainan under construction.
Its twin buildings were more than 10 stories high when they were reduced to a heap of rubble on March 15, said a report by thepaper.cn, a mobile app of the Oriental Morning Post.
With an investment of 200 million yuan (US$33 million), the half-finished hotel was to rise 28 stories and house 500 luxury suites. It was blown up 3 years and 8 months after the project was approved. Had it been completed, it would have become the city’s new landmark.
It was a pet project of the previous leadership, who expected it to boost the city’s image, visibility, and above all, its tourism and catering industry — until Fang assumed office and reversed course.
At his behest, a handful of experts from an Anhui science and technology university detonated the dynamite placed in the hotel buildings.
As the would-be landmark went up in smoke and swirled up billows of dust, it also raised serious questions about Fang’s rationale for tearing it down.
Rumors had it that Fang perceived the hotel as bad omens that might doom his official career. This sounds odd to outsiders but is in fact not so peculiar a justification in the eyes of many superstitious Chinese bureaucrats.
It is said that Fang’s office is just opposite the unfinished hotel, which sits roughly on an invisible “central axis” that runs through and divides the government building that faces south. The hotel’s very location was perhaps considered ominous for Fang’s career advancement.
Before it was dismantled, the curtains inside Fang’s office were always kept closed, supposedly serving as a shield to block any intrusion of bad feng shui.
Besides superstition, another plausible and widespread explanation for Fang’s destruction of his predecessor’s pet project was his desire to leave his own mark. Since the hotel and related commercial developments were the brainchild of his predecessors, he felt compelled to break new ground and leave behind his own legacy at the expense of others.
He differed in his priorities for urban planning, with a focus on developing the eastern part of the city, in contrast to the “going south” strategy of his predecessors. Given the criteria on which officials are evaluated and promoted in China, this explanation might make better sense than some feng shui myths.
Official whims
Still, one cannot but wonder how the whims and preferences of a single official would be allowed to decide the fate of a 200 million-yuan investment, which no doubt ought to have been protected by law. In fact, Fang did encounter resistance in authorizing the demolition, as major decisions had to be reached by consensus among the top leadership. A senior cadre reportedly refused to approve of this move in the beginning but was later bullied by Fang into signing onto the directive that gave the green light to the destruction.
Ruthless as Fang was, he still had to employ sleights of hand to scuttle a fully legitimate enterprise. According to the management of the property developer that was constructing the hotel, they had been twice summoned by local police for “talks” about the company’s alleged frauds. Afterward, the company mysteriously agreed to the demolition, said thepaper.cn. One can only imagine from whom the police received their orders.
The tale of the blown-up hotel in Huainan reminds us, once again, how some officials lack the basic respect for contracts and legally protected business interests, and how they can have their way in turning urban planning into an exercise of unchecked authority.
With such erratic leadership, who knows which project or building will become the next victim of officials’ fear of bad feng shui, their big ego or whatever?
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