Cash-strapped Chinese county sparks outcry by spending millions to host TV show

A county in eastern China’s 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.
Jiangshan – a small county that until last year was listed among the least developed in Zhejiang – 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.
The project was likely intended to boost the county’s profile and attract tourists – a growing focus among China’s local governments amid a national drive to develop the services sector and boost domestic consumption. The show is the Chinese version of Running Man, the massively popular South Korean reality format.
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.
“With 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 – all of that would be better than giving it to a production team,” one user posted on the microblogging platform Weibo.
“This is how taxpayers’ money is being spent. What did the show actually achieve? How much consumption did it really generate?”
Another Weibo user pointed to the fiscal strains facing local governments, noting that “even some more developed eastern provinces are already under pressure”.
“When the economy was booming, spending a few million or even tens of millions meant little, and nobody cared. But do we really need to spell out the current situation?”

China’s local governments have faced growing fiscal stress in recent years, as a prolonged property downturn weighs heavily on land-sale revenues – once a crucial source of income.
Government fund revenues – a category that largely comprises revenue from land sales – fell 26.4 per cent year on year in April, widening from a 16.7 per cent decline in March, according to a GF Securities note last month citing official data.
Yet analysts said local governments still needed to find new ways to grow the economy – and investing in tourism made sense at a time when Chinese consumers increasingly spend on services rather than goods.
Though not every project has paid off, several regions have scored major successes over the past few years, from the booming live music scene to Jiangsu province’s viral local football league.
“Although local governments are under fiscal pressure, there is still a need to promote local tourism and culture,” said Peng Peng, executive chairman of the Guangdong Society of Reform, a prominent think tank affiliated with the provincial government.
He added that leveraging existing intellectual property (IP) – such as Keep Running – for local tourism promotion was an effective way to amplify impact.
“Compared with straightforward self-promotion, it may be more effective. In general, it is a win-win form of cooperation for both the IP owner and the local government.”
Xu Tianchen, a senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, expressed a similar view. “If the budget exists for tourism promotion, I don’t think there’s anything objectionable about it, provided the spending process is free of corruption,” he said.
“Put another way, allocating the tourism budget elsewhere would not necessarily produce better results than spending it on Keep Running,” he added.
Local governments across China have ramped up spending on culture and tourism projects in recent years, as Beijing strives to rebalance the economy towards consumption.
According to Chinese media reports, Jiangshan is not alone in paying substantial fees to secure cooperation with Keep Running. Cities including Chongli in the northern Hebei province and Taizhou in Zhejiang province have made similar deals.
China’s southwestern Guangxi region, meanwhile, unveiled a policy package earlier this year that offers lucrative subsidies to support the local “concert economy”. Concert and music festival organisers will receive up to 1 million yuan per show under the scheme, with total subsidies for a single project capped at 3 million yuan per organiser.
Peng said the backlash to the Keep Running story could be partly linked to the current economic environment, with taxpayers becoming more sensitive to how public funds are used as local finances come under strain.
“Boosting consumption is a key policy priority at the moment,” he said. “The public might not believe it will work, but the government still has to take action.”