Guanxi Master

Does the commencement of Shanghai’s World Expo mark a bid for the passing of the scepter?

China has spent vast amounts on preparing for the World Expo this year, spending billions more than it did even on the 2008 Olympics. There is no aspect of the city or the surrounding areas that has remained untouched by the grand expectations of the event. People are told to be good examples of civilized behavior for the Expo. Old buildings have thin plastic veneers tacked on to make them look like Old Shanghai Longtangs, and plastic bags have been outlawed to make the Expo “Green”. This is quite a lot of trouble for a country that is still “developing” and “should resist the siren song of ‘Big China’.”

What could motivate the Chinese to spend so much to in order to achieve something that is already “old hat” to the international community? By China’s own estimates, there will not be a spike in foreign visits. They are expecting three to four million tourists this year… in other words, exactly the same number they expected last year. But, the Chinese are expecting 50 million Chinese tourists. Shanghai is being painted as the utopian vision for a rapidly urbanizing Chinese population.

Thus, China’s theme… “Better City, Better Life”.

China is moving 20-30 million people per year from the country into the city in the next fifteen years. This is an unprecedented rate of urbanization, and will rapidly change the topography of world power if it is successful and well organized. Imagine the impact twelve to fifteen Seoul-Tokyo sized centers on the Chinese seaboard would have on the world’s commerce and IT. The financial and technological implications would be immense. If China can turn a billion farmers into consumers, it will create an urban culture based on a network of mega-cities that rivals the West’s futuristic visions from the 1930’s.

But there is another aspect of China’s obsession with the Expo. From its inception in 1851, the International Exposition as it was then called was seen primarily as a British Commonwealth exercise in the art of Empire. It continued in this capacity, with a slight nod to European metropolitanism, until the 1930’s, when a rising America took over the brand, turning it into a stage for American innovation. Great Britain undoubtedly passed the scepter of world power to the United States during this time. Over the course of ninety years, the US held a plethora of “World’s Fair” events, only to loose steam in the 1980’s (witness the near fiasco of the US’s inability to raise funding for an exhibit for this Expo). Now China is reviving the form.

What could this unprecedented effort mean? Why raise the bar of world expo construction so high? Just like the Olympics, no other nation in history has spent as much, or will be able to ever again. This changes the focus from a few liberal ‘citizen of the world’ utopians to the center of a governmental image-control project. Some would dismiss it as “Face Construction” (面子工程), referring to the immense amount of importance that the Chinese place on the concept of “face”. I would argue that “face” only applies when other people are watching, which has obviously not been the case of the largely-overlooked World Expo. But another view is also supported by history. Could this be a bid for another passing of the scepter of world power?