I think that's the point. All the things that made early 20th-century New York great are happening in Shanghai now and at a much larger scale. That it's happening in a country under a totalitarian regime is not in line with Western sensibilities, but the assertion itself is reasonable and pretty objective if you've visited Shanghai recently.
It's an amazing city that (in startup terms) still has a growth mindset. New York, London, San Francisco and other Western cities behave like they've grown about as much as they want to.
I hadn’t considered that. It certainly changes my perspective on the comment, but I think my response is still germane; we used to have the political will to build cities (even in liberal democracies) but now we are pretty much in maintenance mode, at least as far as great cities are concerned.
It's an amazing city that (in startup terms) still has a growth mindset. New York, London, San Francisco and other Western cities behave like they've grown about as much as they want to.