Metalnewsnet 29 Apr ：

SHANGHAI - The Shanghai World Expo opening on Friday is the ruling Chinese Communist Party's latest extravagant use of money, underscoring the extent to which it seeks to brandish its power through flashy spectacle.

The government is spending billions of dollars on the Expo - local media estimate some $58 billion of infrastructure is included - transforming an area larger than Monaco into a giant exhibition site.

A gaggle of foreign leaders will attend the opening ceremony, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, which could rival Beijing's 2008 Olympics in terms of scale and cost.

 
All this for an event which has in recent years fallen off the international radar and typically used by less prominent cities and regions, like Spain's Zaragoza and Japan's Aichi, to boost their profile.

But for China's 1.3 billion people, powering an economy likely to soon overtake Japan as the world's second-largest, the hoopla and glitz of the Expo will be cast as another display of the Communist leadership's power and prestige.

"One goal the Chinese government hopes to accomplish by hosting grand spectacles such as these is to re-brand China as a thoroughly modern and strong country, dispelling any lingering image of it as the 'sick man of Asia'," said Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Professor of History at University of California, Irvine.

"These spectacles help distract people from other concerns, while also working very much like stimulus packages, as the construction and destruction needed to get them underway keeps many people employed," he added.

Beijing wowed the world when it hosted the Olympics two years ago, an event remembered as much for Chinese athletes"topping of the medals" table as it was for the awe-inspiring opening and closing ceremonies.

State radio, in a commentary just over a week ago, said that Shanghai?s Expo would build upon the "magnificent" opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics.

It noted that the "gaze of the world will once more be fixed upon China," adding that the event will bring "numerous positive effects" to the nation, something important for a government increasingly concerned with its international image.

The last few months have seen China pilloried in some quarters in the United States for its currency policy, a very public censorship spat with Google and the jailing of four Rio Tinto executives in Shanghai for taking bribes.

"Whether in the field of economics or culture, China has already become a great and pivotal nation in the world, and inevitably the Expo will be a great opportunity to change many perceptions globally," the radio commentary said.

POLITICAL PUNCH

The Communist Party is no stranger to staging huge public spectacles with a political punch, as seen in the mass parades of the early days of its rule, full of the marching ranks of the proletariat and manic waving of over-sized red banners.

In 1964, China staged "The East is Red", a vast singing and dancing tribute to the country's revolutionary leader, Mao Zedong, that was punctiliously overseen by senior officials.

More recently, the government all but closed down Beijing for an over-powering display of military prowess to mark the 60th birthday of the People's Republic on Oct. 1 last year.

"There's a historic legacy of mobilizing people in mass campaigns that may play a role in officials' fondness for spectacles," said Duncan Innes-Ker, Beijing-based China analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit.

"And you can always use these big events as an excuse to crack down, too," he added. "It looks great for politicians.

It's also good for regional politicians to have such an event as they can mobilise funds for infrastructure."

Yet some people question the logic of spending so much money on the exhibition.

"The Expo is just showing China has money. And it is using ordinary people's money to make it," said Shanghai citizen Chang Guo, 54.

"It is not showing China is developed. China has so many poor people, this is just a show. Germany, France, the United States, these countries are developed. China is still not," he added bitterly.