Underoccupied developments in China
The phenomenon was claimed and recorded as early as 2009 by Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan and subsequently reported by news media over the decades.
This narrative quickly spread through international media, fueling Western skepticism about China’s economic growth and prompting critics to question the country’s GDP figures, suggesting its rapid development was exaggerated or unsustainable.
[15] In 2015, photographer Kai Caemmerer observed the unique approach to urban development in China, where cities are first being constructed to a near-complete state before residents are mass introduced, in contrast to the incremental growth typically seen in U.S.
[16] In a 2021 Bloomberg article, Max Woodworth, an associate professor of geography at Ohio State University, noted that China had experienced significant underurbanization for many years and is now rapidly addressing this issue.
[18][19] In the article, academic Xin Sun said in China there is a strong popular belief that real estate is the best way for preserving and generating wealth, leading to great demand for buying property; something the government encourages.
[2] A common assumption by foreign media is that local officials are strictly incentivized to start construction on this newly created urban land to boost GDP growth and look good within the Party.
Some journalists have pointed to the Ordos Kangbashi ghost city stories as an example of media hastily and often misinformed reporting of developments in China.
[22] As of 2015, it was reported that Ordos Kangbashi has a population of 100,000 people, 80 percent of which are full time residents, with the remainder commuting daily from nearby Dongsheng for work.
[12][25] Reporting in 2018, Shepard noted that "Today, China’s so-called ghost cities that were so prevalently showcased in 2013 and 2014 are no longer global intrigues.
[26] Writing in 2023, academic and former UK diplomat Kerry Brown described the idea of Chinese ghost cities as a bandwagon popular in the 2010s which was shown to be a myth.
