作者：易勇
在现代政治学中，绝对权力导致绝对腐败是一条铁律。在当下的中国，这种腐败已经越过了官员贪墨、权钱交易的初级阶段，演变成了更具毁灭性的形式：决策的全面腐败，以及权力的愚蠢合法化。
由于习近平大权独揽、定于一尊，彻底砸碎了党内集体领导体制，并扼杀了媒体与社会监督。在这种缺乏刹车片的独裁体制下，最高决策完全退化为领导人的拍脑门偏好。过去十余年间，中国大地上上演了一场场声势浩大、动辄投资万亿，最终却一地鸡毛的运动式治国荒诞剧。
纵观这些年来的重大国策，最高权力的个人意志催生了一连串令人瞠目结舌的溃败奇观：
首先是对经济根基的重创。在“房住不炒”的口号下，当局强行出台针对房企负债的“三道红线”政策。这种脱离基本经济规律的休克疗法，切断了行业现金流，直接引发恒大、碧桂园等龙头房企爆雷。在缺乏救市配套的情况下，代价被全盘转嫁给底层百姓，全国爆发停贷潮，无数人掏空积蓄却只换来遍布全国的物理烂尾楼。房地产支柱的崩盘，更拖累土地财政破产，让国民经济陷入长期通缩。
在政治神话的塑造上，权力自负制造了巨大的黑洞。被冠以“千年大计”的雄安新区，企图复制深圳神话，但在缺乏市场驱动力的华北平原上，全靠行政高压输血。投入数万亿后，如今落得高铁路网空荡、写字楼高企，沦为最大形象工程与“千年孤城”。与其遥相呼应的是“亲自部署”的海南自由贸易港，在一个高度集权、信息筑墙、资金严密管控的体制下，根本无法建立起自由贸易所需的新闻自由与独立司法，原定封关计划一再推迟，至今外资寥寥，名存实亡。
在高科技与国际战略上，举国体制演变成遍地骗局。面对美国围堵，最高层抛出“卡脖子”理论，注入数千亿大基金搞芯片大跃进。结果引发全国投机狂潮，连水泥厂都改名芯片企业骗补，最终武汉弘芯等千亿级项目接连崩溃，不仅没解决核心技术，反倒留下大量“芯片冢”，大基金高层更爆出系统性贪腐。而投资数千亿的“一带一路”与亚投行，因缺乏风险评估与政治操弄，导致斯里兰卡等国债务违约，留下巨额国际呆坏账，本身也陷于瘫痪。
甚至在微观民生上，运动式折腾也无处不在。“动态清零”坚持“一人阳性、全城静默”，彻底耗尽地方财政后仓促开放；“厕所革命”因基层硬套指标，在无水严寒的北方强修水冲厕所沦为摆设；“退耕还林”后又因粮食焦虑强推“退林还耕”，上演水泥地上盖土种菜的奇观，“农管”鸡飞狗跳，造成巨大的资源浪费。
有人或许会提及“反腐败”运动。然而在缺少财产公开和独立司法的前提下，“右手监督左手”的选择性反腐早已演变为清除异己的工具。它非但没有解决贪腐，反而带来了官僚体制的全面躺平与人人自危。在“多做多错、不做不错”的氛围下，面对最高层违背常识的荒谬决策，讲真话者动辄被冠以“妄议中央”的罪名，盲目迎合者却能加官进爵。满朝文武不是不懂，而是为了乌纱帽，集体选择了装睡与装傻。
这些遍布大江南北的烂尾工程，呈现出“拍脑门决策、运动式推进、灾难性后果、悄无声息收场”的死循环，根源全在于不受约束的绝对权力。独裁者耽溺于权力的滋味，沉迷于“指明方向”的虚幻宏大中。为了维持领袖无所不能的神话，他们宁可看着万亿民脂民膏打水漂，也不愿承认一次错误。
他们不是不懂客观规律，他们只是不在乎。在极权逻辑里，个体的苦难与国家的长远发展，都不及领袖的龙椅重要。这种为了个人虚荣与私利、不惜拉上整个国家前途去殉葬的做法，注定无法换来万世基业。当历史迷雾散去，这些荒诞的烂尾工程，将成为极权体制无能的永久墓碑，而这帮装睡的决策者，也必将遗臭万年。
编辑：韩立华 校对：王滨 翻译：戈冰
The National Hangover Under the Aphrodisiac of Power: Taking Stock of Xi Jinping’s “Unfinished Projects”
By Yi Yong
In modern political science, that absolute power corrupts absolutely is an ironclad law. In present-day China, this corruption has passed beyond the primary stage of official embezzlement and power-money transactions, evolving into a far more destructive form: the comprehensive corruption of decision-making, and the foolish legitimization of power.
Because Xi Jinping has monopolized power and established himself as the sole authority (ding yu yi zun), thoroughly smashing the system of collective leadership within the Party and strangling media and societal oversight, supreme decision-making under this brake-less autocratic system has completely degraded into the top leader’s off-the-cuff personal whims. Over the past decade and more, absurd dramas of campaign-style governance have been staged across China—grand and momentum-heavy, easily involving trillions in investment, only to end up in complete disorder and ruin.
Looking across the major national policies over these years, the personal will of the supreme power has spawned a series of jaw-dropping spectacles of collapse:
First is the severe blow to the economic foundation. Under the slogan “Housing is for living in, not for speculation,” the authorities forcibly introduced the “Three Red Lines” policy targeting real estate enterprise debt. This shock therapy, detached from basic economic laws, severed the industry’s cash flow and directly triggered defaults among leading property developers such as Evergrande and Country Garden. In the absence of supporting bailout measures, the cost was entirely shifted onto the ordinary populace, sparking a nationwide mortgage boycott, with countless people emptying their life savings only to get unfinished “ghost buildings” across the country. The collapse of the real estate pillar further dragged land finance into bankruptcy, plunging the national economy into prolonged deflation.
In the crafting of political myths, power’s hubris has created a massive black hole. The Xiongan New Area, crowned as a “plan of millennial significance,” attempted to replicate the Shenzhen myth; however, on the North China Plain, lacking market drivers, it relies entirely on high-pressure administrative blood transfusions. After investing trillions of yuan, it has now ended up with deserted high-speed rail networks and towering empty office buildings, turning into the ultimate trophy project and a “millennial desolate city.” Echoing this from afar is the Hainan Free Trade Port, which was “personally deployed” by the leader; under a system of extreme centralization, information firewalls, and tight capital controls, it is fundamentally impossible to establish the press freedom and judicial independence necessary for free trade. The original customs closure plan has been repeatedly delayed, and with scarce foreign investment to date, it exists in name only.
In high technology and international strategy, the “whole-of-nation system” (ju guo ti zhi) degenerated into rampant fraud. Facing U.S. containment, the top leadership put forward the “stranglehold” (ka bo zi) theory and injected hundreds of billions into the “Big Fund” to launch a chip “Great Leap Forward.” This resulted in a nationwide speculative frenzy where even cement factories changed their names to chip enterprises to scam subsidies. Ultimately, hundred-billion-yuan projects like Wuhan HSMC collapsed one after another, failing to resolve core technologies while leaving behind numerous “chip graveyards,” alongside systemic corruption exposed among the Big Fund’s top executives. Meanwhile, the Belt and Road Initiative and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which absorbed hundreds of billions in investment, suffered from a lack of risk assessment and were marred by political manipulation, leading to debt defaults in countries like Sri Lanka, leaving massive international bad debts, and falling into paralysis themselves.
Even at the micro level of people’s livelihoods, campaign-style disruption is everywhere. “Dynamic Zero-COVID” persisted with “one positive case, whole city static,” hastily reopening only after thoroughly exhausting local finances; the “Toilet Revolution,” due to grass-roots strict enforcement of quotas, forcibly built flush toilets in the dry and frigid North that ended up as mere ornaments; after “returning farmland to forest,” anxiety over grain security triggered a forced push for “returning forest to farmland,” staging the absurd spectacle of spreading soil over concrete to grow vegetables, with “agricultural enforcers” (nong guan) creating chaos everywhere and causing a massive waste of resources.
Some might mention the “anti-corruption” campaign. However, in the absence of asset disclosure and judicial independence, this selective anti-corruption of “the right hand supervising the left hand” has long evolved into a tool for purging political rivals. Far from resolving corruption, it has instead brought about a total lying flat across the bureaucracy and a state of widespread panic. In an atmosphere where “the more you do, the more mistakes you make; if you do nothing, you make no mistakes,” when faced with the highest leadership’s absurd decisions that defy common sense, those who speak the truth are routinely branded with the crime of “improperly discussing the Central Committee,” while those who blindly pander are promoted and rewarded. The entire court of officials is not ignorant; rather, to protect their official hats, they have collectively chosen to pretend to be asleep and play dumb.
These unfinished projects scattered across the nation exhibit a vicious cycle of “off-the-cuff decision-making, campaign-style execution, catastrophic consequences, and silent abandonments”—the root cause of which lies entirely in unchecked absolute power. The autocrat indulges in the taste of power, obsessed with the illusory grandeur of “pointing the way forward.” To maintain the myth of the leader’s omnipotence, they would rather watch trillions of the people’s hard-earned money go down the drain than admit a single mistake.
It is not that they do not understand objective laws; they simply do not care. Within the logic of totalitarianism, individual suffering and the long-term development of the nation are far less important than the leader’s dragon throne. This practice of dragging the future of the entire nation into burial for the sake of personal vanity and self-interest is destined never to secure an everlasting foundation. When the mists of history clear, these absurd unfinished projects will become permanent tombstones to the incompetence of the totalitarian system, and this crew of decision-makers pretending to be asleep will surely stink for eternity.
Editor: Han Lihua Proofreader: Wang Bin Translator: Ge Bing
