The Telegraph reports:
The world's tallest tower should have been built by now. Officials said last
year that the great edifice with 220 floors would be erected in three months
flat in China's inland city of Changsha by March, snatching the crown from
Dubai's Burj Khalifa.
The deadline has come and gone, yet the wasteland sits untouched. It now
looks as if the fin d'époque project – using prefab blocs – may never be
approved. Even China knows its limits.
Prime minister Li Keqiang has asked the State Council to clamp down on the
excesses of the regions. Not before time. A top regulator says local government finances are "out of control".
Mr Li aims to cut China's economic growth to a safe speed limit of 7pc next
year and rein in rampant investment – still a world record 49pc of GDP – before it traps the country in a boom-bust dynamic of frightening scale.
Vested interests are conspiring to stop him, launching a counter-attack from
their power-base in the $6 trillion state industries. Even so, uber-growth is
surely over.
