Mori Building Co will add seven stories to a Shanghai tower that it began in 1997, spending ?25 billion (US$206 million) more to complete what will become the world's tallest building.
Japan's biggest privately held developer plans to shoulder as much as a third of the US$800 million price tag for the 492m, 101-story World Financial Center, Chairman Minoru Mori told reporters at the building site in the city's Lujiazui financial district.
China, which had 8 percent economic growth last year, is seeking to impress investors with more skyscrapers and hotels, especially in the area it calls the nation's Wall Street. Last year, China had US$52.7 billion of foreign investment, surpassing the US as the world's top recipient, the UN said.
"With the world's attention now focusing on Shanghai, we think it is opportune to resume work on this project," Mori said.
Construction on the World Financial Center, started in 1997, was halted five years ago during the 1997-1998 Asia financial crisis, partly because of controversy over the design.
Now, the skyscraper will contend for glory with Taipei 101, a 508m office under construction in Taiwan, China's political rival. The 101-story building in Taipei, due to be completed next year, will house the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The height of Taipei 101 is "achieved with a huge antenna right at the top. We can also add a couple of antennas," Mori said. It is important to set the record straight because "being the tallest sure beats being No.2."
In Shanghai, the glass-and-reinforced-concrete World Financial Center will comprise a shopping mall, 70 floors of offices, an eight-story hotel and a museum and an open-air observation deck, said David Malott, associate principal at New York-based Kohn Pederson Fox Associates, which drew up the original design.
The building will add almost 380,000m2 of office and hotel space to the Lujiazui area, where average office occupancy was less than two-thirds last year.
The original design of the building earned China's ire because a 50m hole at the top bore a resemblance to the symbol for the Japanese flag, China said.
Mori, which said the hole is to relieve wind pressure, bowed to sensitivity about Japan's invasion of China in the 1930s and 1940s by adding the observation deck across the middle of the hole.
With the new height, the World Financial Center will top Malaysia's Petronas Twin Towers, which holds the current record as the world's tallest building, including 39m decorative spires.
"Shanghai does require some unique landmarks to set it aside from other cities and financial centers in the world," said Zheng Shiling, a member of the Chinese government's think-tank, the Academy of Social Sciences.
Shanghai's Lujiazui already houses China's tallest building, the 421m Jin Mao Tower.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2