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HONG KONG – The world's longest sea bridge is expected to open Tuesday, traveling 34 miles into the Pearl River Estuary in China, forming one of the pillars of Beijing's plan to merge eleven cities from the southern region into a megapolis.
Crossing 20 times the length of the Golden Gate Bridge in California, the six-lane hub will connect a regional economic zone of 70 million people, with a combined annual GDP of $ 1.51 trillion, nearly double that of the region from the San Francisco Bay Area and Australian, Spanish or Mexican national economies. This nine-year construction project is in addition to a recently launched high-speed train to reduce travel times and strengthen business links between Chinese industrial cities and Hong Kong's financial center. as well as the enclave of gambling Macau.
The links are part of a plan to create an integrated region that officials have dubbed the "Great Bay Area". The bridge will place Hong Kong, Macau and the Chinese city of Zhuhai at one o'clock each. Highlighting the importance of the project, President Xi Jinping will be the guest of honor at the official opening on Tuesday, local media reports quoted government sources as saying.
Xi's plan to build Silicon Valley in China will require more than just infrastructure to succeed. Hong Kong and Macao are two former Western colonies that promised a high degree of autonomy until the middle of the century: they have their own legal and political system and residents enjoy greater freedoms than their counterparts in the continent . In Hong Kong in particular, there is growing concern that these rights are being eroded and that Beijing's ultimate goal is to swallow the city on the continent.
Height bridge
The opening of a mega bridge on the Pearl River Delta marks a milestone in China's plan to merge eleven cities into a "Great Bay Area".
Hong Kong-Zhuhai
Macao Bridge
Steps to deeper integration face challenges such as different legal and tax systems, as well as varying levels of Internet freedoms. China still has a relatively closed capital account, while Hong Kong and Macao are free ports with their own currencies and no control of capital.
Hong Kong paid about $ 15 billion for the completion of the bridge and the associated construction costs. In return, the city "will assume a more active role in the development of the Great Bay region," said Frank Chan, senior transport official in Hong Kong, citing links in the areas of trade, finance, logistics and tourism.
Some lawmakers in Hong Kong wonder if the investment will be profitable and if political constraints will be imposed.
"We are still very skeptical about what the bridge will bring to Hong Kong," said Alvin Yeung, leader of the Civic Party. "This is another symbolic project to put Hong Kong in the image of the continent."
The question of who can use the Y-shaped bridge, which opens to traffic on Wednesday, highlights the challenges associated with integrating three different systems. In Hong Kong and Macau, traffic is on the left side of the road. in mainland China, people drive right. The solution? The cars change side of the road at a specially constructed melting point, located on the viaduct at the mouth of the bridge connecting Hong Kong. Private vehicle owners must also obtain separate licenses for each city, which are subject to strict quotas, making this solution inconvenient for most motorists.
During construction, the project was marred by the death of several workers and an investigation into a graft of falsified concrete tests.
The project consists of three cable-stayed bridges, with connecting roads and a tunnel crossing the sea through artificial islands. The government said it was built to last a century and resist earthquakes and megastones. The bridge remained unscathed after a supertyphon named Mangkhut sucked the windows off the offices and uprooted hundreds of trees across the city on September 14.
President Xi made it clear that the development of South China in a high-tech region was a priority, an even more important goal because of the intensification of the trade conflict with the United States and the growth rate. the country, which fell to 6.5% in the third quarter, the slowest pace since the global financial crisis.
Guangdong Province, home to nine of the 11 cities in the Great Bay region, is the starting point for the liberalization of the Chinese economy 40 years ago. Xi's father, Xi Zhongxun, was then governor, sent by Beijing to implement the reform policies in the city of Shenzhen.
According to a report released in August 2018 by HSBC, the Greater Bay Area occupies only 1% of China's landmass, twice the size of the San Francisco Bay Area. It produces 37% of the country's total exports and 12% of its GDP. The bank expects nearly 45 percent of China's technology companies will be in the province by 2025.
-Yifan Wang contributed to this article.
Write to Natasha Khan at [email protected]
