{"id":882212,"date":"2026-06-21T07:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T07:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/882212\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T07:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T07:07:13","slug":"cash-strapped-chinese-county-sparks-outcry-by-spending-millions-to-host-tv-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/882212\/","title":{"rendered":"Cash-strapped Chinese county sparks outcry by spending millions to host TV show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A county in eastern China\u2019s Zhejiang province has landed in hot water after spending over US$1 million of public funds on hosting an episode of a hit television show, sparking public backlash at a time when regions across China are grappling with an economic slowdown and mounting fiscal pressures.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Jiangshan \u2013 a small county that until last year was listed among the least developed in Zhejiang \u2013 spent 8.5 million yuan (US$1.26 million) to get the team behind the reality TV show Keep Running to film an episode in the area, according to a government procurement notice circulated by Chinese media.<\/p>\n<p>The project was likely intended to boost the county\u2019s profile and attract tourists \u2013 a growing focus among China\u2019s local governments amid a national drive to develop the services sector and <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3302645\/chinas-latest-plan-boost-consumption-most-comprehensive-1970s?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">boost domestic consumption<\/a>. The show is the Chinese version of Running Man, the massively popular South Korean reality format.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But the scale of taxpayer support has come under scrutiny, with many users on Chinese social media questioning whether the project will really boost spending and arguing the money would have been better spent on providing much-needed local services.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWith 8.5 million yuan, you could fund local infrastructure, provide subsidies for the elderly and children, pay teachers and healthcare workers, or even help stabilise prices \u2013 all of that would be better than giving it to a production team,\u201d one user posted on the microblogging platform Weibo.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThis is how taxpayers\u2019 money is being spent. What did the show actually achieve? How much consumption did it really generate?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A county in eastern China\u2019s Zhejiang province has landed in hot water after spending over US$1 million of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":882213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[12],"tags":[9710,64,74,358317,38087,79,358312,358315,108020,354400,358313,8519,358316,358314,358311,67,132,68,60274,73651],"class_list":["post-882212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-beijing","tag-business","tag-china","tag-chongli","tag-economist-intelligence-unit","tag-economy","tag-gf-securities","tag-guangdong-society-of-reform","tag-guangxi","tag-hebei","tag-jiangshan","tag-jiangsu","tag-keep-running","tag-peng-peng","tag-taizhou","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-weibo","tag-zhejiang"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116786839496704199","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}