To gauge the status of the scheme, Reuters visited a dozen building sites in the dusty city of Shijiazhuang south of Beijing. A middle-income city of 10 million, including satellite towns, Shijiazhuang is one of the few to have published a public list of its affordable housing projects.

Tall towers rising from flat fields and former industrial sites laid to rest the assumption of some that local governments are simply faking affordable housing starts to meet central government targets. In Shijiazhuang at least, the projects are real.

But a good portion of what’s being built is already-planned construction re-labeled as affordable housing. Those projects aren’t delivering the additional demand for concrete, steel, glass or aluminum window frames that typically ensure that construction gives an outsized boost to economic growth ….

“There’s a big difference between government definitions and what a normal person would consider an ‘affordable house’,” said GK Dragonomics research manager Rosealea Yao.

The focus on affordable housing, however loosely defined, has taken a heavy toll on other projects. The Wall Street Journal recently looked at a stumbling feng shui-compliant high-end canalside development in Wuxi, Jiangsu:

Artists’ renderings showed a forest of gleaming glass buildings, including a 40-story hotel-anchored skyscraper, overlooking yacht-bearing waterways. Even though Wuxi isn’t generally considered among China’s marquee cities, the country’s property-mad investors were hooked. When the first 303 apartments went up for sale in 2009, they sold out within four hours.

Today, the Xi Shui Dong development stands less than half complete, hamstrung by its parent company’s high debt and tough new government restrictions. Last year, unit sales fell 25% from 2010, despite steep discounts. Construction cranes loom over mostly empty streets boasting only a handful of retailers.

It is an increasingly common malady: China’s two-year push to drive down property prices has punished many of the nation’s once highflying property developers and stymied a number of upscale projects …. Policies enacted since 2010 include restrictions on the purchase of second homes, higher down payments and tighter credit.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: house prices, housing market, housing policy, property market, property prices, Shijiazhuang, Wuxi
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The new smart cards look like ordinary social security cards, but can record more data and be used more widely.

The names, genders, social security accounts, bank card numbers and photos of cardholders are printed on the front of the cards, while their blood types and other information are stored in the barcodes imprinted on the middle of the cards.

In addition to serving as a healthcare card, the smart cards can help identify people who use ATM machines, enter a building equipped with an electronic guard system or even pick up their children at kindergarten.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ID card, privacy, Wuxi
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A court in Wuxi, in eastern Jiangsu Province, upheld the conviction of Wu Lihong, who became well known around China for seeking to prevent chemical companies from dumping untreated waste in Lake Tai, China’s third-largest freshwater lake. The ruling was made Friday, his wife and his lawyer said Monday.

Mr. Wu, his lawyer and many of his colleagues in the area’s environmental movement said the charges of blackmail and fraud had been concocted by local officials to put him behind bars, after his protests against their collusion with chemical companies attracted widespread news media attention. [Full text]

See also the New York Times previous report “In China, a Lake’s Champion Imperils Himself“. Read more about Wu Lihong via CDT.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: environmental activism, Lake Tai, Wu Lihong, Wuxi
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Lake Tai, the center of China’s ancient “land of fish and rice,” succumbed this year to floods of industrial and agricultural waste.

The outbreak confirmed the claims of a crusading peasant, Wu Lihong, who protested for more than a decade that the region’s thriving chemical industry, and its powerful friends in the local government, were destroying one of China’s ecological treasures.

Mr. Wu, however, bore silent witness. Shortly before the algae crisis erupted in May, the authorities here in his hometown arrested him. In mid-August, with a fetid smell still wafting off the lake, a local court sentenced him to three years on an alchemy of charges that smacked of official retribution. [Full Text]

Video here, slide show here, and package landing page here.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Lake Tai, Wu Lihong, Wuxi
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One morning this summer, residents of this eastern city awoke to find that their beloved Tai Lake had turned rancid. The water was filled with a bloom of blue-green algae that gave off a rotten smell. It was not only undrinkable; it was untouchable. Few living things stirred in the water.

For almost three decades, the city had welcomed some of the world’s biggest polluters. Churning out paper, photographic film, dye, fertilizer, cement and other products for the global marketplace, the businesses helped make Wuxi into one of China’s wealthiest industrial cities.

They also poisoned the province’s vast network of lakes, rivers and canals. In late May, when the toxic sludge reached Tai Lake, which is the main source of potable water for Wuxi’s 5.8 million residents, people turned on their taps and got only sludge. [Full Text]

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: environmental protection, industrial pollution, water pollution, Wuxi
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© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Wuxi
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Wu Shouxin (Âê¥ÂØøÈë´), a 68-year-old retired teacher, lives right off a tiny river called Lengdu Gang (ÂÜ∑Ê∏éÊ∏Ø), part of the water system of Taihu Lake. His first thing every morning, over the past seven years, has been taking note of the water condition of his home-side waterway. From April to June this year, according to Wu’s notes, the river was “black and smelly” 87% of the time. On July 28, the river was dark green and smelled of blue algae.

This gravely ill lake, which has fed millions in cities around it, has cut off the drinking water for days to rapidly industrializing lake-side towns, including Wuxi (Êó†Èî°), home to more than 5 million and known by many as the “little Shanghai.” The situation has gotten so bad that Jiangsu provincial party secretary Li Yuanchao (ÊùéÊ∫êÊΩÆ) vowed to impose on the “most strict environmental protection system to clean up the lake, even if the GDP drops 15%.”

(...)
Read the rest of A New War on Taihu Lake – Southern Weekend (436 words)

© Michael Zhao for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: algae bloom, industrial pollution, Lake Tai, water pollution, Wuxi
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This article is from Southern Metropolitan News. Thanks to Hegel Chong’s translation on his Reading China blog:

Over th past 15 years, Wu Lihong has been complaining about the pollution of Tai Lake. In 2005, he was selected as the outstanding environmentalist of China. But he was arrested for fraudulent recently. He was accused of extorting money from enterprises. This accusation is not made the first time. In the eyes of the local government and the polluters, Wu is an unscrupulous criminal.

(...)
Read the rest of Three Parties In Environmental Politics – Zhu Jiangang (115 words)

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: environmental activism, Taihu, water pollution, Wu Lihong, Wuxi
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© Gao Fei for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: environmental protests, water pollution, Wuxi
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Authorities in a major mainland city issued emergency orders Thursday to stem panic water-buying after heavy pollution in a lake contaminated drinking supplies for millions of people.

The Wuxi city government said it was doing everything it could to rid the Tai Lake of a huge algae bloom that was triggered by the pollution, but in the meantime drastic measures were needed to supply residents with water.

“To rid the water of the odor and taste is a difficult problem for our water- treatment [plants],” it said. [Full Text]

See also Diversion of Yangtze river to tackle Wuxi water crisis by Xinhua.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Lake Tai, water pollution, Wuxi
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© Sophia Cao for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Wuxi
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