>>Billions of dollars of foreign investment pouring into the country confirms that title to real property is secure.<<
Oh, my. Hang on to your wallets, folks, if that's what passes for advice. Makes as much sense as saying that billions of dollars pouring into dot-coms proves that they are good investments.
A year or two ago Jay Chen posted something on the Booms, Busts and Recoveries thread to the effect that he saw investors coming to China to buy, all pumped up and laughing, and later he saw the same ones coming to sell, all sad and crying, and he got a cut out of both transactions. I can't remember any key words to search for it but Jay keeps his posts in some kind of database.
China is financing a boom on borrowed money that it may not be able to repay. The public debt overhang in China is quite large, but hard to get a handle on because transparency is non-existent in China. I've seen it estimated at 140% of GDP.
pbs.org
ftbusiness.com
>>What about human rights?
I raised this question numerous times with various groups in the country. Once, seated in a tea house in the midst of a popular tourist site in Shanghai, I asked that question of my host, a Chinese national who now divides his time between China and North America. He simply waved his arms at the literally thousands of tourists, nearly all locals, who were happily snapping photos and buying souvenirs. These people clearly had no human rights issues on their minds. People living in China, quite frankly, find this topic a joke. <<
That's sad. |
