STATIC ON THE STREETS OF BEIJING: NEW CCTV TOWER

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 024030

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/24/2031
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KCUL SOCI CH
SUBJECT: STATIC ON THE STREETS OF BEIJING: NEW CCTV TOWER
IRKS ARCHITECTS, STAFF AND NEIGHBORS

Classified By: Classified by Political Section Internal Unit Chief
Susan A. Thornton. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
--------------


1. (C) Construction of China Central Television's
soaring new headquarters tower is in full swing in
central Beijing. But even as the ambitious project
generates a buzz at New York's Museum of Modern Art,
criticism and controversy simmer at home. Contacts
groused that the cost of the building is too high and
that the selection process for the design was non-
transparent. Local residents, fed up with round-the-
clock construction noise, painted anti-Communist Party
and anti-CCTV slogans on a nearby building. Such
sentiments reflect frustration among regular citizens
who feel they have little say in the urban planning
decisions that affect their lives, contacts said.
Despite the complaints, with strong official backing
and with the structure itself starting to take shape,
there is little chance work will halt. End Summary.

Crooked Doors, Bird's Nests, Alien Eggs
--------------


2. (C) The USD 750 million budget for the CCTV
headquarters complex comes from the State
Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT),
Chinese media has reported. A Central Government
panel selected Dutch celebrity architect Rem Koolhaas'
blueprint in 2002 in a closed process, contacts told
us. The key feature of the project will be a 54-story
office building in the shape of a cantilevered arch.
In photos of the prototype, the bridge of the arch
juts out, appearing to defy gravity. With the mockup
pictures widely available on the Internet, Beijing
residents have already dubbed it "The Crooked Door."
(Note: This is in keeping with local tradition. The
Olympic Stadium in northern Beijing is nicknamed "The
Bird's Nest," while citizens of the capital call the
nearly completed opera house behind the Great Hall of
the People "The Alien Egg." End Note.)


3. (C) Li Xiaoping (protect),a longtime producer at
CCTV, said a special committee with representatives
from SARFT, the State Council Information Office, CCTV
and other Government organs voted on and approved the
design and location for the new headquarters. The
final tally was not unanimous, Li related, adding that
CCTV brass voted "no" on the project. CCTV staff are
annoyed about the move, Li said. The new location is
across town from the current headquarters in western
Beijing. Many of Li's colleagues own apartments on
that side of town and are miffed at the prospect of
having to commute. The traffic around the new
location, already bad, will be nightmarish, she
predicted. Exacerbating the congestion will be
hundreds of visitors who go to CCTV every day on
routine business. In addition, regular citizens
currently flock to the network to air grievances in
the hopes that one of the network's investigative news
magazine programs will publicize their plight. These
callers will not likely shy away just because CCTV has
a new address, Li said.

The Price of Progress?
--------------


4. (C) The price tag of the building dismays many on
CCTV's staff, including Rui Chenggang (protect),a
popular anchor and talk show host. "Spending three
quarters of a billion dollars on a headquarters
building is wasteful," Rui complained to poloff,
charging that the funds should be spent on production
development and new technology. "There is no reason
for the expense," he added. Instead, Rui argued that
CCTV's identity should be defined by the shows it
produces, not the building it inhabits. Ma Guoxin,
Director of the Beijing Institute of Architectural
Design (BIAD),separately agreed. The CNN and BBC
television headquarters, for example, are located in
nondescript "glass box" buildings, he observed.


5. (C) Ma, whose firm failed in its 2002 bid to build
the CCTV complex, is a vocal critic of the project.
He decried the lack of transparency in the selection
process and said he has written a letter of complaint
about the tower's plans. He has opted not to send the
missive, he said, because he does not want officials
to retaliate by rejecting BIAD's bids on Olympic
projects. Spending a lot of money on a headquarters

BEIJING 00024030 002 OF 002


building is one thing for a rich private company or
foundation, Ma argued. But CCTV is a Central
Government entity and is using public funds. As such,
he said, the Government should have exercised more
prudence with its purse strings. Lu Zhou, Vice Dean
of Tsinghua University's School of Architecture,
separately made a similar point. Given the transport,
environment and health care challenges the capital is
facing, why spend so much on a blockbuster project
like this, he wondered, adding that he has opposed the
project from its inception.


6. (C) Ma of BIAD lamented to poloff that high-level
officials award big-ticket works like the CCTV tower
without considering the practical effect on the
citizens of the city. Beijing residents should have
more of a say in how their city is being transformed,
he commented. In particular, Ma criticized the
Government for awarding the contract to build the
Bird's Nest, Beijing's 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium, to
a foreign firm, Herzog and de Meuron of Switzerland.
Ma claimed this is the first time a host country has
farmed out construction of its showcase Olympic
stadium to non-native architects. "This should be a
chance for local Chinese architects to show their
ability," Ma fumed.

"Oppose CCTV!"
--------------


7. (C) Nearby residents and shopkeepers are mixed in
their views about the construction project. Last
summer, inhabitants of a nearby apartment building
spray-painted protests on the walls outside the upper
floors of their building: "Oppose the Communist
Party!" and "Oppose CCTV!" The graffiti, clearly
visible from the busy Third Ring Road, was painted
over in less than a day. Staff at a row of sundries
stores and restaurants across from the site, however,
were content to let fate dictate their fortunes. For
the time being, their businesses are booming as
construction workers stream into their establishments
for drinks and food throughout the day and night. But
the bounty will not last forever, acknowledged one
clerk in a convenience store, who said he expects his
building, an unsightly one-story concrete box, to be
demolished when the new complex opens. "There is no
room for buildings like this one here," he said. The
prospect does not make him nervous. Without even an
electronic cash register, his operation has little
overhead. When the wrecking ball swings, he will
simply move his store to a new busy location, he said.
Randt