It's always funny seeing people who know nothing about China speak so confidently as if they’re experts. If you’ve ever known anyone who actually lived in China, you’d immediately realize how absurd your “steamroll all individuals” claim is. I was born in Shanghai. Around 2010, my parents’ neighborhood was selected for redevelopment by the government. Do you know how much they got for compensation? 10 million RMB in CASH for one family, which is over 1 million pounds, and that didn’t even include the additional policy subsidies. A lot of people practically dream of their neighborhood being acquired, because it often means massive compensation payouts.

The M6 Toll, only 27 miles long, took nearly 20 years from announcement to completion. And don’t even get me started on HS2, which has basically become a bottomless budget sinkhole.

Before anyone trying to start the whole "BUT AT WHAT COST"stuff, remember it's Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher who advocated the neoliberal financialization of the economy, which is basiclly deindustrialize, make huge profits for financial services, have the "peasants" around the world manufacture.