Frostbite U.

I had a meeting this morning at one of Shanghai's finest universities. The entire university had been rebuilt on a new campus in one of Shanghai's suburbs. Modern buildings, open spaces, newly-planted trees, and parking space - a rarity in Shanghai. The building I entered had more marble in it than a quarry.

A gentleman from the university gave our group a Powerpoint presentation that boasted of their new research labs, wind tunnels, and PhDs. Only problem was - there was no heat in the building. As he proudly told us of all their fancy equipment we sat there wrapped in overcoats, shivering in his marble-walled refrigerator. This would have been bearable for an hour but our meeting lasted for five hours. By the second hour some in our group had turned on their laptops and were huddled over them for warmth. One man begged the rest of us for extra business cards and a match.

This situation exemplifies a lot of what I see in China. Huge expenditures on visable infrastructure and hardware but cutting corners on "software" and systems. Good roads with up-to-date traffic lights but no one to enforce the traffic regulations. Machinery but no spare parts. The latest medical testing equipment made useless because the hospital buys cheap knock-off reagents that foul the test results. And beautiful campuses with no heat.