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FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2412
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

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