What happens when nation-building projects collapse?

Source: innate huaren spidey instinct x kick-ass China analyst brain (just kidding I have a reference list below)

The People's Republic of China (PRC) had long manipulated domestic economic indicators to buff up the nation's economic profile. Part of the CCP's soft power campaign tethered nation-building and patriotic pride with the country's infrastrcture mega-projects. But what happens when the infrastructure project falls into pieces...?

LITERALLY.

On November 11, 2025, Hongqi Bridge 紅旗大橋 in the Sichuan province partially collapsed. The local government said that a landslide caused the bridge to collapse. The bridge was a RMB $399M (CAD $78.5M) project that had been opened to the public since April 2025.

Thankfully, no one was hurt! The bridge was closed off by local officials a day before the collapse. S/O to the truck driver reported the cracking concrete to local officials.

The Hongqi Bridge was one of the many infrastructure mega-projects in the PRC that seeks to boost domestic economic growth. Other infrastructure nation-building projects include "ghost cities", those eerily empty residental neighbourhoods and unfinished apartment buildings in the PRC, a byproduct of an "urbanized China".

White Elephant project: An expensive, wasteful, and inefficient financial investment that fails to deliver value; the cost of upkeep is exceeds the project's usefulness.

The Sichuan province is prone to earthquakes. Near the Hongqi Bridge, the Shuangjiangkou Dam 雙江口大壩 completed two rounds of water storage in 2025. Since the dam began to store water, local residents reported frequent landslides in the region. It would not be difficult to infer that these massive infrastructure projects were built without considering the ecological and environmental implications.

Hongqi Bridge's collaspe must be inconvenient to the local residents (Barkam city, population 58,000). This collapsed bridge also brings significant financial strain onto the local government to repair this newly built/broken bridge.

Alas, that is not even the real point of this rant...

The takeaway here is, the Chinese state-apparatus had lost face 丟臉.

📝 Reading List 📝

Lyric Li & Julie Yoon (November 2025). "Video shows part of newly built bridge in China collapsing in seconds". Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/11/12/china-hongqi-bridge-collapse/

Alice Li & Ji Siqi (July 2025). "China pledges to build megaprojects despite pivot to domestic consumption'. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3317569/china-pledges-build-megaprojects-despite-pivot-domestic-consumption

STATE MEDIA: Peng Chao (July 2025). "Poverty alleviation transforms Sichuan's cliff village". China Daily. https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202507/23/WS68808dd0a310ad07b5d91834.html

"四川红旗桥垮塌：村民称水库蓄水后曾发生山坡垮塌". 联合早报. https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/china/story20251113-7812428

Lina Batarags (October 2021). "China has at least 65 million empty homes — enough to house the population of France. It offers a glimpse into the country's massive housing-market problem." Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/china-empty-homes-real-estate-evergrande-housing-market-problem-2021-10

Lim Min Zhang (November 2025). "‘Mountain’s problem’ or design flaw? Dramatic collapse of new bridge in China raises questions". The Strait Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/mountains-problem-or-a-design-flaw-dramatic-collapse-of-new-bridge-in-china-raises-questions

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