Ning Leng is a professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University. In an impressive article in Foreign Affairs titled “China’s Edifice Complex: Why Beijing Can’t Stop Wasteful Spending,” Leng argues that China, over the decades, has spent heavily on showy projects that prioritize appearance over practicality. Officials have pursued these projects to impress their superiors and showcase their achievements. In doing so, they often divert resources from less visible but more effective initiatives, thereby hindering the country’s long-term growth. This pattern can be observed across sectors and spheres of official work. Leng characterizes it as a “visibility trap.”

To be fair, China may not be alone in this type of development. In recent times, we have come across many such projects and schemes in our own part of the world where visibility matters more than the viability of projects. Why all this happens is a question that deserves thoughtful answers?First, large-scale projects are politically marketed, implemented quickly, and made highly visible in less open systems. Authoritarian systems generally prefer such projects. While these systems excel at rapid top-down execution, their long-term planning often suffers due to suppressed debate and distorted information flows. Bureaucrats in such autocratic setups frequently manipulate data to tell their superiors what they want to hear. Leaders favour eye-catching initiatives because they generate immediate political glory, while open criticism is often treated as an act of disloyalty. Furthermore, regimes tend to prioritize their own political survival over public welfare.

Second, China’s one-party political system has given rise to a party-state bureaucracy which, according to Ning Leng, showcases grand projects as symbols of development despite their limited practical value. This tendency has filtered down through the party hierarchy. In recent years, local governments have launched “AI Tourism Towns” were robots dance and chat with tourists. Many of these projects have emerged in inland regions that lack an educated workforce, leading critics to dismiss them as gimmicks. The political system incentivizes loyalty and obedience, leaving local officials with little room to pursue projects outside party priorities.

As a result, in 2014 Beijing........

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