Zhang Yue, a billionaire manufacturer and environmental evangelist, planned to build a revolutionary skyscraper in provincial China. Then government, pride and economic reality got in his way.

On a sweltering afternoon in July 2013, in the city of Changsha—home to 8 million people, but little known to anyone not Chinese—a hometown company called Broad Group broke ground on what it promised would become the world’s tallest tower. The lead of CNN’s report read like a provocation: “Dubai’s 828-meter Burj Khalifa has less …

Zhang Yue, a billionaire manufacturer and environmental evangelist, planned to build a revolutionary skyscraper in provincial China. Then government, pride and economic reality got in his way. Read More »