The Deadly Math of Chinese Infrastructure, as Seen at 186 MPH

Statistics are a devilish thing in China, where, it is thought, a good number of them are made up in order to mask a slowdown in the country’s economic boom, even if that boom is obviously busting. Growth is down, but the most prominent symbol of China’s growing pains may have been the crash last year of a high-speed train on China’s recently-minted high-speed rail line.

Built at breakneck speed under the authoritarian hand of railway minister “Great Leap” Liu, and capable of traveling at 188 mph, the high-speed rail project became an example of China’s statist power at a time when infrastructure elsewhere, as American politicians and Tom Friedman have gotten good at pointing out, is in a shambles. (“The Chinese are more successful because in their country only three people make the decision. In our country, three thousand people do," the U.S. Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, said in July.)

But then the crash happened, and after it tried to cover up the crash site, the government was forced into action by angry citizens, who shared their anger online. Fifty-four people in government and industry were blamed (the railway minister first among them) and new rules were implemented, but journalists in China are still on orders, a year on, not to discuss the crash. Luckily, Evan Osnos wrote a fascinating account of the whole high-speed rail racket, replete with some eye-popping statistics I’ve pulled out here — numerical testament to the ferocity and fragility of China’s infrastructure boom, with scandal and corruption the ever-present leitmotif.

“The biggest danger facing the ruling party," was how Wen Jiabao, the prime minister, has described it, a threat he said that, left unchecked, could “terminate the political regime.” (An article in the Times last week detailing the Wen family’s fortune, estimated at $2.8 billion, led China to block the Times. Now that’s rich.) But Evan points to a more immediate risk for China’s dirty officials: “Storing cash is one of the most vexing challenges confronting corrupt Chinese officials, because the largest bill in circulation is a hundred-yuan note, worth about fifteen dollars.”

Some interesting stats on corruption in China, and particularly its rail industry.

Three hundred — number of new stations since 2003 that have been built or revitalized by China’s Railway Ministry, which has nearly as many employees as the civilian workforce of the United States government.

$100 billion USD — amount that the Chinese government invested in railroad development in 2010.

35,000 miles — length of railroad track laid in the U.S. between 1866 and 1873

10,000 miles — length of high-speed railway China sought to build between 2003 and 2010

50% — percentage of Chinese provinces that had sent their chief of transportation to jail for corruption, by 2007, according to Minxin Pei

$78 million USD — cash set aside to compensate people whose homes had been demolished to make way for railroad tracks that “disappeared” during construction

$3 million USD — amount spent by the Railway Ministry on a five-minute promotional video

$50 million — amount in dollars in cash, real estate, jewelry, and art owned by Liu Zhixiang, the Railway Minister’s brother when he was arrested for corruption in 2005

$89.8 billion — net worth of the richest seventy members of China’s national legislature, which gained more wealth in one year—$11.5 billion—than the combined net worth of the United States President, his Cabinet, all the members of Congress, and the Justices of the Supreme Court, according to the Hurun Report and Bloomberg News.

A mock film poster that circulated on the internet after the crash, featuring officials of China’s Railway Ministry, led by disgraced minister Liu Zhijun.

18,000 — number of corrupt officials who have fled China since 1990, having stolen a hundred and twenty billion dollars, according to an estimate by China’s central bank

3% — percentage of China’s gross domestic product – two hundred billion dollars today – that corruption was costing China in 2007, more than the country’s national budget for education

Bonus vocab: maiguan — a word added to the Modern Chinese Dictionary, the national authority on language, this summer, meaning "to buy a government promotion.”

Evan asked an engineer who worked on the railway’s construction about the speedy work done to build the world’s biggest railway project. “I can’t pinpoint which step was neglected or what didn’t get enough time, because the whole process was compressed, from beginning to end.” He added, “There is an expression in Chinese: when you take too great a leap, you can tear your balls.”