Urban Development and Municipal Power: Beijing in the Wave of Globalization

Abstract

On the first of October 1949, the city of Beijing celebrated the birth of a new political era led by the Chinese Communist Party. Except for the totalitarian-style Tiananmen Square complex constructed between in the 1960s and 1970s, the city would not see major constructions until the next millennium. With the opportunity of hosting the 2008 Olympic Games, the municipal government of Beijing, determined to transform Beijing into a world city, invited international architects from Europe, Australia and the USA to submit projects for architectural competition. In February 2003, half way through the planning stage of the Olympic Beijing projects, the international media was shocked to be informed that Beijing municipal government has invited Albert Speer Junior, the son of Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, to undertake the urban planning project. His design for Beijing presents a north-south axis bearing a similar outline as that of the Berlin Reconstruction Plan under the Third Reich. Which elements of