How a Chinese Local Congress Said No

Chinese local congresses rarely reject the projects their governments put before them. On February 4, 2026, one did. At the fifth session of the Huangyan District People’s Congress, in Taizhou, Zhejiang (台州黄岩区), 267 representatives voted on sixteen proposed investment projects. Two were rejected on the spot, each budgeted at more than a billion yuan: a sports complex and a water-control project. The representatives also voted to add a national highway that the government had not put on the list.1The case drew notice partly because it is uncommon, and partly because of when it happened. Huangyan, like most Chinese districts, is short of money. The vote can be read less as a political opening than as a way to keep officials from committing funds the district does not have.Subscribe for deep, weekly essays on the complexities of China's past and present.The vote, and the spending behind itUnder the rules Huangyan adopted, a representative could not vote in favor of a project. The only…