Only recently did I learn the word Chinesium, a much needed neologism describing the crappy, subpar metal that cut-rate Chinese manufacturers build their products out of.
So what happens when you build skyscrapers out of Chinesium? This happens:
Engineers were inspecting a skyscraper in southern China on Wednesday, a day after it triggered widespread panic when it suddenly began shaking, as people took to social media to ask if shoddy construction may have been to blame.
Shoddy construction? In China?
The 1,000-foot SEG Plaza in the southern city of Shenzhen near Hong Kong began swaying in the early afternoon on Tuesday, prompting people inside and those on the streets below to flee.
Emergency management officials quickly ruled out an earthquake as the cause of the wobble in the tech hub’s Futian district.
Officials said no further movement had been detected and experts found “no safety abnormalities in the main structure and surrounding environment of the building.”
The building had stopped shaking by the time people were evacuated, state media reported, and the plaza remained sealed off.
Building collapses are not rare in China, where lax construction standards and breakneck urbanization over recent decades has led to buildings being thrown up in haste.
You don’t say. It’s cut corners all the way down.
Poor construction standards are often linked to corruption among local officials, most recently after the collapse of a quarantine hotel in southern China last year.
As opposed to that corruption among national officials reporters aren’t supposed to mention.
Completed in 2000, the tower is home to a major electronics market as well as various offices in the central business district of Shenzhen, a sprawling metropolis of more than 13 million people.
The building is named after the semiconductor and electronics manufacturer Shenzhen Electronics Group, whose offices are based in the complex.
It is the 18th tallest tower in Shenzhen, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat skyscraper database.
I’d never heard of Shenzhen Electronics Group, AKA Shenzhen Fine Made Electronics Group Company Ltd., which doesn’t necessarily mean anything. There are lots of fabless semiconductor manufacturers in various vertical markets I’ve never heard of. Bloomberg says they have 899 employees. So why do they have a website that would have looked ancient even in 2005?
Hopefully their semiconductors are better constructed than the building they work in.
Chinese authorities last year banned the construction of skyscrapers taller than 500 meters (1,640 feet), adding to height restrictions already enforced in some other cities such as Beijing.
Sounds like Chinesium may be a widespread problem in China…
Tags: China, Chinesium, Communism, fraud, Semiconductors, Shenzhen, Shenzhen Electronics Group
Lawrence,
We have formed a Discord for former commenters at Althouse. If you would like an invitation, just e-mail me twixella@aol.com.
heh. and china manufactures .9 of the pharmaceuticals americans consume ….
[…] talked about buildings made of Chinesium and rotten tail buildings, upon which construction stops but upon which mortgage owners are still […]