{"id":242453,"date":"2022-08-27T00:15:49","date_gmt":"2022-08-27T07:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=242453"},"modified":"2022-09-09T18:06:15","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T01:06:15","slug":"cadres-instructed-to-buy-buy-buy-china-out-of-property-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2022\/08\/cadres-instructed-to-buy-buy-buy-china-out-of-property-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Cadres Instructed To Buy, Buy, Buy China Out of Property Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are cadres the answer to China\u2019s property market crunch? Some local officials seem to believe so. Hundreds of thousands of homebuyers across China have <\/span>boycotted their mortgages payments<\/span><\/a> in protest against the stalled construction of their homes, with some referring to themselves as \u201cCamel Xiangzi,\u201d the ill-fated protagonist of a 1937 satirical novel by Lao She. <\/span>The roots of the crisis are complicated<\/span><\/a> but can be broadly explained by a 2020 crackdown on excessive borrowing by developers and risky debt financing fueled by misplaced optimism about ever-rising home prices. While the Politburo has <\/span>enjoined that stalled residential construction projects be finished in a timely matter<\/span><\/a> (and thus mortgage payments resumed), some localities have taken stabilization to a new extreme: compelling low-level cadres to purchase homes, regardless of how many they already own. <\/span>The party secretary of Hunan\u2019s Shimen County instructed local officials<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cI hope that every cadre present at today\u2019s session can take the lead in purchasing homes. If you\u2019ve already bought one, buy two. If you\u2019ve already bought two, buy three. If you\u2019ve already bought three, buy four.”<\/span><\/p>\n