China has thousands upon years of doing things in a big way. This reinforces its place in the world as well as the political power of its leaders, from emperors to Mao Zedong and to the current leader, Xi Jinping.
It may not seem like a significant feature of the landscape that Beijing became the first city to host both the Winter Olympics and the Summer Olympics. It’s still in the same realm as China, the most populous nation in the world. Beijing has always been positioned at the center, and its Chinese name, Zhongguo, means “middle” in Chinese.
This attraction to bigness is not new. This is a tradition that dates back to more than a dozen Chinese dynasties, which ruled China for thousands years. One of these dynasties re-created an entire army terra cotta warriors and was buried alongside an emperor. This is a way of projecting large-scale political power, which was adopted by China’s Communist Party in 1949.
Orville Schell, a U.S. China scholar, explained in his book “Mandate of Heaven” how Mao, the leader of China’s communist revolution expanded Tiananmen Square in 1950s to make it 100-acres in size.
It’s five times bigger than Moscow’s Red Square. Mao went one step further than the Russians and adorned the square in Soviet-style architecture. The most well-known of these is the Great Hall of the People. After Mao’s 1976 death, the square was eventually renamed to include his mausoleum.
Schell described Tiananmen as “a propagandist’s dream come true” in describing it. It was incredible in every way.
This staggering figure starts with China’s population of over 1.4 billion people and continues to China’s public buildings. The tallest apartment blocks, some Soviet-inspired and others built in modern times, are often set back from the 10-lane avenues. This reduces the number of pedestrians using the sidewalks.
It reaches shopping centers, commercial spaces, and buildings such as the Bird’s Nest Stadium, a 91,000-seat colossus built for the 2008 Olympics. It was used for the opening ceremony for these Winter Games.
The New Century Global Center in Chengdu is the world’s largest shopping mall. What size? It could hold three Pentagons. Or 300 football fields.
This block-long, seven-story media center for the Olympics replaces an outsize building that was used as the 2008 Games media center.
The Beijing headquarters of China Central TV is a two-leg tower measuring 768 feet (234 meters) tall. It is also known locally as “Big Underpants” due to its unusual design. Rem Koolhaas, an architect, famously stated that the building could not have been designed by the Chinese or built by Europeans. It is a hybrid, by definition.
There are also 40,000 km (25,000 miles) high-speed rail lines and the Belt and Road Initiative, often called the New Silk Road. It is widely considered the most important building project of all time. It stretches from China and East Asia to Europe, and includes rail lines, ports and highways. This project aims to increase China’s influence and trade. Critics point out the insurmountable debt burden of many countries.
China’s attack against COVID-19 is fittingly mammoth too. It can also lock down millions of people in a show state power built partly upon Orwellian surveillance architecture. Do you need a medical facility China built 1,000-bed hospitals within a matter of days during the pandemic.
Maria Repnikova, a Georgia State University China specialist, described China’s policy to go large as the “politics in grandeur.” This is something that goes beyond concrete and includes scholarships for foreign students, training, and economic assistance.
Repnikova stated in an interview that the idea was to show external audiences more.
“The intensity of the scale is what you first notice (in China), whether it be the Presidential buildings or other sites or Olympic venues. This is something that catches the eye at first, but then one wonders “How did they do it?”
What does the Chinese context mean by big? It is impressive and can change the landscape. It’s also significant because of the way it is thought about, especially for a government that long valued the projecting of control to its sometimes disobedient hinterlands.
Sheena Greitens, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin on China, stated in an email that “authoritarian use of propaganda and political symbols can serve two purposes”
“I believe Beijing will use both, providing domestic and international audiences with humanizing stories of ordinary Chinese people and ensuring they see impressive displays by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), and state power.”
Diana Fu, a China expert from the University of Toronto, stated that authoritarian states often construct in a method she calls “spatial governance,” which aids them in suppressing protests and insurrections.
Fu wrote to AP, “Small, winding streets in dense neighborhoods can foster a feeling of neighborly feelings, trust, and which is crucial for collective action.” Large boulevards and predictable geometric patterns of streets, districts and streets allow the state to better control and monitor its population. Contemporary China is an example of an authoritarian state that can do this while being supported by little opposition from the civil society.
China tried to control weather for the 2008 Olympics by claiming that it would make rain and clear the skies. Then, when rain was needed, China would drive the rain away. Peasants wore military fatigues and helmets to the rainmakers’ installations outside Beijing. They used rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns to bombard the sky with silver Iodide in an attempt to bring down rain.
This is what it means to be big.
Mao Zedong, sixty years ago, made exaggerated claims about new techniques for agriculture that would save China from starvation during the Great Leap Forward. His schemes to defeat nature were based mainly on ideology and pseudoscience, and led to widespread famine.
Alexander Dukalskis, a professor of international relations at the University of Dublin wrote to AP, “Authoritarian leaders and parties try to create a feeling of unassailability.” They communicate through symbols and displays that state power is infallible and that they are bound to fail.
He said, “Projections to state power are also helpful for an international audience: These can convince other countries or companies that if it is not in line, they can be punished.”
