China’s villages pay the price for Beijing’s AI ambitions

{"text":[[{"start":6.68,"text":"China’s tech giants are pouring billions into the hinterland region of Shaoguan, whose lush mountains and peaceful rural villages are slowly being populated with power-hungry data centres."}],[{"start":17,"text":"Alibaba, Tencent and Huawei are among the companies taking advantage of ample land, cheap electricity and cooler climate to develop computing infrastructure in the southern Chinese region, part of Guangdong province."}],[{"start":29.44,"text":"Shaoguan is an economic beneficiary of Beijing’s multitrillion-yuan push for inland cities to build the computing power and infrastructure needed to serve China’s more populous coastal metropolises and fulfil the country’s ambitions of becoming a world leader in AI. Beijing views the sector as a priority that could reap huge dividends in terms of growth and technological innovations."}],[{"start":51.08,"text":"Data centre construction in the US has often been met with protests from residents fearing energy costs, water usage and house prices will all take a hit."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":59.76,"text":"But despite the din of construction and dust now sweeping through many parts of Shaoguan, its residents appear to be more worried about whether the new developments will offer them tangible benefits once the building frenzy is over."}],[{"start":71.36,"text":"Local governments in hinterland cities from Guangdong to Inner Mongolia view the data centre boom as a chance to attract investment, convert low-productivity land into revenue-generating tech hubs and spur growth."}],[{"start":83.74,"text":"The collapse of the country’s massive property sector, which previously supported land sales that generated about one-third of local government revenues, has made that opportunity more enticing."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":93.8,"text":"“Computing power is a productive force,” Chen Shaorong, Shaoguan’s top official, told an annual provincial political gathering earlier this year. “We are determined to shoulder the responsibility of providing a solid computing foundation for . . . Guangdong.”"}],[{"start":107.72,"text":"In Shaoguan, the government has announced plans to build 23 data centre complexes for a total investment of Rmb111.6bn ($17bn), equivalent to 65 per cent of the city’s annual economic output last year. While this is a small fraction of the national investment, officials hope it will make a big difference to Shaoguan."}],[{"start":127.54,"text":"In the first half of this year, with construction on several projects completed, energy usage from data centres has rocketed fivefold. Local economic growth has jumped to 5 per cent, ahead of the provincial and national averages."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":142.68,"text":"“The Shaoguan government has thrown practically all of its resources . . . in the direction of the computing cluster [project],” said Cai Dayin, the Shaoguan-based vice-president of Denovo, a software company that opened a local office late last year. “It has massively boosted the local economy.”"}],[{"start":160.6,"text":"Shaoguan’s mountainous terrain and relatively remote location hived it off from the manufacturing and export boom that powered the cities of the Pearl River delta to the south."}],[{"start":170.6,"text":"Its economy, dependent on tourism, farming and traditional manufacturing, has stalled. In 2025, annual disposable incomes averaged at around Rmb36,000 ($5,300) and in rural areas that figure drops to less than Rmb26,000 ($3,900)."}],[{"start":191.68,"text":"“The money and the economy is a bit better than before . . . but the pollution is very bad,” said one resident in her fifties who runs a shop in the shadow of a data centre complex operated by telecoms group China Unicom. “Look around, everything is covered in dust. It’s filthy.”"}],[{"start":207.96,"text":"Since last year, construction projects and workers have taken over some villages, their hard hats and steel-toed boots strewn haphazardly outside low farmhouses. Many of those houses are plastered with stickers or graffiti advertising rooms for rent and house temporary wooden bunk beds."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":224.12,"text":"“When I came here, it was completely empty,” said one business owner, who opened a store to serve workers building a sprawling Tencent data centre on what was once grassland. “Now within one year, they built so many buildings.”"}],[{"start":237.6,"text":"But earning only 4,000 yuan monthly could barely cover the cost of rent and her utilities, she said."}],[{"start":243.6,"text":"Several floors of the state-owned commercial building housing Denovo’s office were yet to be finished when the FT visited. Most of the software company’s higher-skilled staff came from larger cities, said Cai, while local job creation was limited to supporting industries such as construction and material suppliers."}],[{"start":261.08,"text":"“Compared to those more labour-intensive industries, the impact on the population isn’t that great, but in terms of GDP the transformation is significant,” he said, adding that he and his colleagues spent many weekends in Shenzhen or Guangzhou."}],[{"start":275.42,"text":"The shopkeeper said that jobs in one data centre were scarce and poorly paid, adding that a friend who had worked there as a cleaner was paid around Rmb2,000 ($300) per month."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":287.32,"text":"Some villagers’ lands have been repossessed for construction, and in some cases they say they have not received compensation yet. “We don’t have a place to grow vegetables anymore. If there was land, I could still farm,” said one former farmer in his sixties. “I’m old and don’t have income. I can only rely on my sons.”"}],[{"start":305.4,"text":"The Shaoguan government did not respond to multiple requests for comment."}],[{"start":309.16,"text":"Wang, a village-level party official near one of the data centres who gave only a surname, said that compensation for repossessed land was only the “first step” in terms of improving local livelihoods, which also benefit from secondary benefits such as opportunities to rent out accommodation to workers or jobs in the centres themselves."}],[{"start":328.04,"text":"Nonetheless, the store owner said she plans to leave when the construction is complete. “I utterly regret it,” the person said. “There’s nowhere to go, nothing to eat and dust swirls in the air.”"}],[{"start":343.04,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1792502951_8251.mp3"}