Recently, American media reported articles about China's infrastructure construction: These are the large-scale projects in China's $1 trillion infrastructure plan.

The report said: China is injecting trillions of yuan into the field of infrastructure investment, and the stimulus measures will benefit the world's second largest economy.

Relevant data show that Beijing is providing 6.8 trillion yuan (about 1 trillion US dollars) of government funds for relevant construction projects. By some estimates, China's total construction spending is even higher -- three times that -- once bank loans and corporate funding are added.

In the short term, infrastructure investment will boost employment and ease the urgency of millions of job seekers affected by the economic downturn. In the long run, these stimulus measures will help China achieve its ambitions to become a more urbanized, high-income economy, better able to compete with the United States in high-tech fields such as semiconductors. The following is the main flow of these funds.

Renewable energy boom

The deserts of northern China will usher in an unparalleled renewable energy construction boom. Construction has begun in recent months on wind and solar "bases" that will have renewable energy capacity comparable to the current capacity across Europe by 2030.

The first stage of turbines and photovoltaic panels of around 100 GW will be completed in 2023, and another stage (450 GW) has already started in 2022. China is expected to expand its lead over Europe and the US in solar and wind energy. According to Chinese state media, the second phase will cost more than 3 trillion yuan.

Ultra-high voltage transmission lines will carry energy to the densely populated eastern seaboard. China's state-owned power grid company plans to build 13 of these lines in 2022.

The longest water channel in the world

China has accelerated the construction of canals, dams and reservoirs, and will invest more than 800 billion yuan in these projects in 2022. The most ambitious of these is a 200-kilometer canal, the River Diversion Project, also known as the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. This will be the longest water channel in the world.

University of Melbourne researchers estimate that China-wide water delivery projects account for about one-third of China's water infrastructure spending, and the planned projects will add 122 billion cubic meters of water to China's annual water availability -- about as much as Germany's annual water consumption. 5 times. As highly labor-intensive projects, the government favors these projects. China's Ministry of Water Resources said about 30,000 water conservation projects underway provide about 1 million jobs.

Develop green cities

Local governments are most fond of building urban infrastructure, including urban roads, gas and water pipeline networks and parks, and these projects account for a large portion of China's infrastructure spending. After decades of sprawling concrete, the focus is turning to building greener cities.

The "Songya Lake Ecological New City" in Central China (Changsha County), which will start construction in 2022, will cost about 200 billion yuan, of which 70% of the area will be dedicated to greening and water sources. This is roughly the same proportion of buildings and natural spaces as the Xiongan New Town under construction near Beijing, which is now used as a model by planning agencies across China.

Another investment favored by local governments is an industrial park that provides low-cost facilities for businesses. In the first quarter of 2022, local governments will use about a third of the funds raised through bond sales for urban infrastructure and industrial parks, official data show.

Extend high-speed rail mileage

China has 40,000 kilometers of high-speed rail, more than double the total length of the rest of the planet, and dozens of high-speed rail projects are still underway. The most ambitious line is 1,629 kilometers long and runs from Sichuan Province to Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. The project is expected to be completed by 2030. The total cost of the entire project is about 320 billion yuan.

China said in 2022 that it plans to have 70,000 kilometers of high-speed rail by 2035, and build and renovate 58,000 kilometers of expressways. Meanwhile, Chinese cities are still rapidly building new subway lines.

New infrastructure construction

As part of an effort to expand the digital economy, China's "East and West" project involves building large data centers in the relatively impoverished western province to hold data generated by internet companies headquartered in the eastern region. The construction of 8 data center clusters (should be 8 national computing power hub nodes and 10 national data center clusters - editor's note) will cost about 400 billion yuan per year.

"The central government sees data center construction as a way to spread the benefits of the digital economy beyond developed coastal cities, as well as enable China's domestic market," said Gronevegen-Rau, an analyst at a German think tank. Greater protection from external shocks.”Editor/Ma Xue