Big plan, a little fuzzy

FROM the damming and diverting of mighty rivers to the building of huge new cities from the ground up, China’s government does not shy away from grand schemes. The Communist Party’s highest decision-making body has now signed off on another one: the integration of the capital, Beijing, with the nearby port city of Tianjin and much of the surrounding province of Hebei in a “co-ordinated development programme”.

The idea had been under quiet consideration for years, but after the Politburo announced on April 30th that it would move forward, extravagant claims quickly followed. It could turn the region into a “Chinese version of the Rhine-Ruhr”, one of Germany’s most populous and productive areas, said Xinhua, a state-run news agency. Other reports likened the potential effects to the “powerful boost” enjoyed by Los Angeles when, decades ago, it incorporated nearby counties. An economist at Peking University said it would be “earthshaking” for the region’s population of more than 100m and bring “tremendous economic progress in north-eastern China by 2050”. According to the finance ministry, the project will attract 42 trillion yuan ($6.8 trillion) in investment over the next six years alone.