https://web.archive.org/web/20221018025241/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/francis-fukuyama-still-end-history/671761/

  • kristina [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    He talks about China blowing up those buildings in Kunming as an example of the CPC's poor planning, but I looked into it (and this is almost certainly the video he is referring to, where 15 very large buildings are demolished) and the construction wasn't planned by the CPC at all, but by real estate capitalists hoping to build expensive high rise buildings. The CPC cancelled the venture and recycled the materials because the capitalists lied about certain inspections of the ground and foundation, the ground was really wet and unstable and the entire area was a risk that became apparent as development went on. Quite a few people got hit with corruption charges, and its the only time a housing demolition of this scale has occurred in China. Similarly, each apartment was something absurd like 6500 sqr ft. Clearly meant only for the richest and their stalled development made a ton of locals angry as hell that it was such an (literally festering) eyesore near the downtown. Even ran some comments through a translator and they were saying things like 'Ah, to be a capitalist throwing milk in the Mississippi...' and 'Capitalists will give milk to a dog but not to the poor, to the end with them!'

    If anything, this proves the opposite of Fukuyama's point.

    • Ram_The_Manparts [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      No no no.

      You see, anything bad that ever happens in China is directly ordered by the SeeSeePee.

      • kristina [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        All the comments I see are lambasting the government for not putting more heads on pikes and assuming control of the project. Honestly envy that energy. This is like... a site's local subreddits lmao.

        From what I read theyre replacing the buildings with public housing after building proper drainage and expanding the nearby marshland to act as the drain which the capitalists cut corners on prior. Apparently was an 8 year long shitshow that got everyone riled up in Kunming.

          • kristina [she/her]
            ·
            2 years ago

            So I dug into it further and apparently the government declined any new high rises for the area and they built a ton of 10 story buildings for public housing which are due to be fully open by the end of the year and are already filling units. So after the government intervened it took them only 1.5 years to fix the issue that capitalists jerked off on for 8 years lmfao

              • kristina [she/her]
                ·
                2 years ago

                It makes sense. Whenever something makes headline news for the whole country the CPC just goes :mao-aggro-shining: and pulls out the axe

        • invo_rt [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          theyre replacing the buildings with public housing

          :xigma-male:

        • Bloobish [comrade/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          One day I wish to live in a country in which the people advocate the government to whip the capitalists even more for wasting the people's time with their newest grift

    • GorbinOutOverHere [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      and this is almost certainly the video he is referring to,

      I literally saw that on /r/interestingasfuck, reddit's premier anti-China/NK/Russia propaganda sub, like two days ago, lmao

      my takeaway was "wow that was a really well coordinated demolition I don't think America could even do that"

      • kristina [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        There are a couple more demolitions of smaller projects but a cursory glance at each shows that its mostly real estate capitalists cutting corners. The difference is the CPC doesn't want a Grenfel Tower situation to happen, so they notice some things awry where they were lied to at some point and immediately order demolition and corruption charges. And of course in a country of 1.4 billion, 50 or so demolitions in a montage isn't really that much going on...