Chief Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police Bureau found himself sitting by the tall window of the grand river-view suite on the 39th floor of the Hyatt Hotel in Pudong, in the company of Comrade Zhao, the retired yet still powerful Secretary of the Party’s Central Discipline Committee, who had given Chen politically sensitive cases in the past. The view outside should have been breathtaking, with colorful vessels moving along the river outlined by numerous high rises on both sides, but there was no view, nothing but a shroud of grayness.
“Like everywhere else in China, Shanghai has changed a lot with unprecedented economic reform,” Zhao said. “It used to be nothing but farmland all over here, I remember. Now, with these skyscrapers jostling against one another, it is truly the financial center of Asia, and soon, of the world too.”
Zhao usually did not speak in such an official manner. Chen listened respectfully. But it was a true statement—the city had seen unbelievable transformation in recent years. Next to the Hyatt, another new building, destined to be even higher, was under construction.
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