(FORTUNE Magazine) – Not long ago, Shanghai officials were boasting that 80% of the world's cranes were at work in their city. That may have been a stretch, but it's true that countless buildings have flowered on this skyline in the last decade, making it one of the most spectacular and dynamic anywhere.

And it is supposed to become even more so. Unfortunately, the $625 million Shanghai World Financial Center--slated to be the tallest building on earth, taller than the Sears Tower (FORTUNE, May 24) or the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur (April 12)--has hit one stumbling block after another. The first appeared when architects at Kohn Pederson Fox in New York City presented their initial plans. They had intended the circular "moon gate" at the top of the tower to evoke Chinese representations of unity and harmony (not to mention reduce wind resistance). The Chinese themselves saw something else entirely--a rising sun, the architectural equivalent of the Japanese flag. It was not considered a good omen.

A walkway was created to bisect the circle, cutting through the objectionable symbolism. But the delays kept right on coming. The estimated completion date may now be as far off as 2005--four years late. Causes run from the contraction of the Japanese banking system (the Japanese are building the SWFC and financing much of it) to an overwhelming glut of commercial space to general economic dishevelment in East Asia. None of those reasons make people here feel any better, though: The SWFC was to anchor Shanghai's new Pudong commercial district, and to establish this city over Hong Kong as the financial and industrial capital of Asia. Instead the nonbuilding stands to become, at least temporarily, the ghost of regional ambition. As symbols go, that one's got to hurt.