From The Financial Times:
For much of the past decade Shanghai has been placed on a pedestal at home and lionised around the world as a glamorous model for developing country cities.
Within China, however, Shanghai is quietly losing its lustre as its economic drivers run out of steam and new leaders in Beijing look askance on the privileges bestowed on the city by the previous administration.
Slowing economic growth, wobbly property prices, a flagging financial market and the drift inland of the manufacturing sector have all dented the confidence of the country’s commercial capital after a decade when it received only plaudits.
The political tide has turned against the city as well, with the replacement of Jiang Zemin, the head of the so-called “Shanghai Gang”, once the overwhelmingly dominant faction in the central government, with Hu Jintao as president and Communist party secretary.
