A tofu project (or tofu dreg project) is a Chinese term (Traditional Chinese: 豆腐渣工程; Pinyin: dòufuzhā gōngchéng) for a shoddily-made building, especially those hastily erected during China's communist-mandated construction boom. These edifices infamously collapse during earthquakes, when not for no apparent reason whatsoever.
"The term (tofu project) was coined in 2008 during the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan province, when thousands of children died in collapsed “tofu-dreg” schools. Families and schoolteachers who sought accountability for the bad construction were silenced through detention and police threat." (Los Angeles Times, "As Beijing claims credit for beating coronavirus, many Chinese are outraged: ‘Fake! It’s all fake!’ ", Alice Su, March 10, 2020)
by Bezzle Bedeviled March 28, 2020