China’s Next Megaprojects Are Built for Big Science

A new kind of megaproject

Thirty metres underground on the outskirts of Shanghai, engineers are assembling a three‑kilometre tunnel that will house the Shanghai High Repetition Rate XFEL and Extreme Light Facility (SHINE). The machine will fire ultra‑short, intense X‑ray pulses to record atoms in motion — a capability that demands millimetre‑level alignment over kilometres and shields from vibrations caused by nearby maglev trains. The project is run by ShanghaiTech University (上海科技大学) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (中国科学院), and it exemplifies a broader turn: civil‑engineering skills once used for roads and real‑estate are now being redeployed to build giant scientific instruments.

From highways to X‑ray lasers

For years China leaned on highways, railways and property to drive growth. That model has shifted. It has been reported that between 2015 and 2024 spending on scientific fixed assets — labs, equipment and machines — more than tripled, while investment in traditional infrastructure rose by less than 80%. The pivot shows up elsewhere: the “East Data, West Computing” initiative to expand national data centres and a reported 4.8 million 5G base stations by 2025 underscore Beijing’s emphasis on “new infrastructure” such as computing, networks and big science instead of ever more roads and bridges.

Science, strategy and supply chains

Why the change? Scientists in China long focused on theory because the country lacked many of the large instruments needed for frontier experiments. As economic capacity has grown, officials and university leaders see big facilities as tools to attract talent and anchor research hubs. Geopolitics sharpens the calculus. It has been reported that export controls and restrictions by the United States and allies on high‑end chips and specialised equipment have increased pressure for self‑reliance, making domestic megascience projects both scientific goals and strategic bets.

Long arcs, local impacts

Reportedly more than 90 megascience facilities have been built or planned across China, creating a national network that could reshape the country’s research landscape. Will the returns match the investment? Roads and bridges remain essential, but officials say marginal returns on new traditional projects have fallen; the new strategy aims to deliver longer‑term scientific, industrial and regional benefits — and to train a generation of engineers who can build not just infrastructure, but instruments for discovery.