It was a sprawling cultural and tourism project that completely went off the rails, and now Beijing is using it as evidence of grass-roots government mismanagement \u2013 one of three high-profile examples of wastefulness newly flagged by China\u2019s disciplinary authorities.<\/p>\n
Following an investigation, the project \u2013 dubbed \u201cYaohan Longevity City\u201d and located in Gongcheng Yao autonomous county of Guilin \u2013 was condemned as a \u201csevere waste of resources\u201d.<\/p>\n
Initially hailed in 2018 as a key initiative in the county\u2019s 30th-anniversary celebration, the undertaking intended to position Gongcheng as a leading hub for health tourism. Now it serves as a warning to other local-level government cadres across China.<\/p>\n
Spanning an area of about 9.3 hectares (23 acres), the project was initially expected to attract a total investment of 1.65 billion yuan (about US$229 million). However, due to a broken capital chain and a series of poor decisions by local authorities, only 540 million yuan was spent, with six out of the eleven planned buildings left abandoned and idle.<\/p>\n
Authorities in the county, with a population of nearly 250,000 people, \u201cmade blind decisions to build cultural and tourism projects out of touch with reality, resulting in idleness and waste\u201d, China\u2019s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said in its report, released this week.<\/p>\n
Deng Xiaoqiang, the primary backer of the project, who was found guilty of misappropriating 5 million yuan (US$700,000) under the guise of loans to a company he controlled, was expelled from the Communist Party in December 2022.<\/p>\n