Free Republic

It's hard for us to understand China, partly because of the very real cultural differences, and partly because China is wholly owned and operated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP has never been forthcoming about the actual state of China's economy, especially where real estate is concerned.Those chickens are now coming home to roost. The CCP China's real estate bubble is popping, and the workers who build China's housing are already paying the price.Workers for a major Chinese developer are going without pay, and job sites are going unfinished as the Chinese real estate market struggles, according to...

NEW YORK – Never before in US political history has the whole of the American business community—more than thirty major business organizations—spoke with one voice as it did in an August 5 appeal to the Biden administration to eliminate tariffs on imports from China. No entities in American politics are timider than business lobbies, most of whose work involves quiet lobbying for administrative relief and legislative tweaks. Such a high-profile intervention suggests that the business organizations believe that a deal is already underway. A deal is likely because inflation could poison the Democratic Party’s chances at 2022 mid-term elections and...

Let’s just say that African customers craving a Big Mac from McDonald’s for lunch in Guangzhou were not lovin’ it when they discovered that they had been banned from entering the restaurant. A branch of the fast-food chain posted a notice stating, “We’ve been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant.” Guangzhou is home to one of China’s largest African communities. It is a hub for African traders to buy and sell goods. Tensions are high between Chinese locals and Africans in the city. Blame the coronavirus for this incident. Online rumors...

The British government has ordered millions of coronavirus tests made in China that do not work, Public Health England’s Professor John Newton has admitted. Professor Newton, the government’s new testing chief, said that while some of the Chinese tests could identify immunity in those who had been very sick, all of the tests had failed the minimum thresholds set for the trials. They “are not good enough to be worth rolling out in very large scale”, he said. “The test developed in China was validated against patients who were severely ill with a very large viral load, generating a large...

The hottest market in the hottest economy in the world is Chinese real estate. The big question is how vulnerable is this market to a crash. One red flag is the vast number of vacant homes spread through China, by some estimates up to 64 million vacant homes. We've tracked down satellite photos of these unnerving places, based on a report from Forensic Asia Limited. They call it a clear sign of a bubble: "There’s city after city full of empty streets and vast government buildings, some in the most inhospitable locations. Click here to see the ghost towns

Will trade action bring back American jobs? Nov 4th, 2010 by Michael Pettis Posted in Trade protection, Trade war /snip But the argument that China trade has no impact on US employment is I think a very weak one. In the first place, China doesn’t simply produce slippers, lighters and toys to sell to the US. Chinese growth is heavily capital intensive, and China produces many things that Americans produce or used to produce until quite recently – including automobiles, steel, chemicals, advanced metal products and, soon enough, aircraft. Remember also that China’s import substitution will have as big an...

While India received overwhelming international sympathy and support during the 26/11 terrorist outrage, the Chinese reaction was one of almost unbridled glee, while backing Pakistani protestations of innocence. The state-run China Institute of Contemporary International Relations claimed that the terrorists who carried out the attack came from India. Moreover, even as the terrorist strike was on, yet another Chinese ‘scholar’ gleefully noted: “The Mumbai attack exposed the internal weakness of India, a power that is otherwise raising its status both in the region and in the world”. Not to be outdone, the Foreign Ministry-run China Institute of Strategic Studies warned:...

French government officials say they are now the fourth victim of cyberattacks originating from China, saying the attacks are similar to those reported by other countries. In the past three weeks, government officials in Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom have claimed that cyberattacks on government systems have originated from China. Chinese officials have denied they are behind the attacks. French officials were careful not to implicate the Chinese government as the source of the attacks.

Does China pose a territorial threat to Russia? 1/07/2005 MOSCOW, July 1 (RIA Novosti) - The Chinese are already settling in large numbers in Siberia and Russia's Far East, and some experts do not rule out that sooner or later there will be no Russians left in these areas. Izevstia, a respected daily, invited experts and politicians to comment on the issue. Sergei Darkin, the governor of the Far Eastern region of the Maritime territory: This is an invented problem. China is our neighbor and important strategic partner. The Maritime territory accounts for 10% of Russia's trade with China and...