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Former Central Bank Official: China’s Real Estate Industry Will No Longer Drive Economic Growth

A former Chinese official, Sheng Songcheng, wrote an article titled, “China’s Real Estate Market Is Now at a Turning Point.” Sheng is the former Director of the Survey and Statistics Department of the People’s Bank of China and is now a Professor of Economics and Finance at the China Europe International Business School.

Sheng said that China’s real estate industry is a at a transition point. In the future, China is unlikely to rely on this industry to boost large economic growth. China’s per capita dwelling space is close to 2/3 of that of the United States, while its per capita GDP is only 1/6 of that of the U.S. This indicates that the development of China’s real estate industry has reached a new stage (a ceiling).

Sheng argued that, although real estate development may not help the economic growth much in the long run, it still can in the short term, especially during the downfall of the economy due to the COVID lockdown,. He suggested that the government should loosen policies and provide more money to help the struggling real estate companies to complete their projects.

Source: SINA, July 29, 2022
https://finance.sina.com.cn/china/2022-07-29/doc-imizmscv4009355.shtml?cre=tianyi&mod=pcpager_news&loc=21&r=0&rfunc=96&tj=cxvertical_pc_pager_news&tr=174

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Communist China Created a Party School to Train African Leaders

In Early June,at the Julius Nyerere Leadership Centre in Tanzania. Beijing hosted a training of 120 officials who are the backbone of the ruling parties of six Southern African countries. The six countries include Tanzania Ny, South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.

These six countries founded the Julius Nyerere Leadership Centre, with the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Foreign Liaison Department providing a grant of US $40 million.

Source: Epoch Times, July 3, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/7/3/n13772412.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

Beijing Is Buying Lithium Mines Worldwide

The lithium battery is critical for electric cars. Chinese companies have been buying lithium mines around the world.

China’s Ganfeng Lithium announced on July 11 that it will buy 100 percent of Argentina’s Lithium shares for US$962 million. Lithea has two projects at lithium salt lake in Argentina, which can produce 30,000 to 50,000 tons of lithium carbonate. Ganfeng has another four lithium salt lake projects in Argentina, three lithium mines in Australia, two lithium stone projects (one in Mali and one in Ireland) and one lithium clay project in Mexico.

China owns 6 percent of the global lithium reserves and produces 13 percent of the global lithium output. Chinese companies manufacture half of the total lithium batteries.

Chinese companies intensified competition to control the lithium resources outside of China. Six companies, including four Chinese companies, bid for lithium resources in Bolivia. Ganfeng Lithium beat CATL to buy the Canadian company Millennial which has two lithium salt lake projects. BYD, a Chinese electric car company, signed an agreement to buy six lithium mines in Chile. Tianqi Lithium bought 24 percent of the shares of SQM, a lithium mine company in Chile.

Source: Epoch Times, July 17, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/7/17/n13782559.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

U.S. Veteran: How the Chinese Consulate Tries to Control the Voting in U.S. Elections

The U.S. will hold its mid-term elections on November 8. To prevent foreign governments from interfering in the U.S. elections, the State Department offered a $10 million reward for reporting such interfering activities.

Yan Xiong, a candidate running for the U.S. Congress in New York State’s 10th district, said the Chinese Consulate in New York ordered the Chinese diaspora not to vote for him. He told the Epoch Times on July 24, “The Chinese Consulate informed Chinese associations not to let their people vote for me. Many people called me or wrote to me to tell me about it.” There are many in the Chinese diaspora in the 10th district. Mr. Xiong feels his case is solid evidence that Beijing is interfering in the U.S. election.

Mr. Xiong is a Chinese-American human rights activist. He was a law student at Beijing University and a student leader in the Tiananmen democracy movement in 1989. He came to the U.S. in 1992 as a political refugee and served in the U.S. military for 27 years. He retired as a chaplain in the army.

Mr. Xiong told the Epoch Times newspaper about another instance of Beijing’s interference cases in March. He was planning the opening ceremony of his campaign office on March 19. The Chinese Consulate asked Chinese association leaders not to support him, to give him no donation and not to vote for him. The Chinese Consulate called people from Fujian Province and Guangdong Province in for a meeting on either March 17 or 18, giving them a choice: “Would you rather do business in China or support his campaign?” Those people then didn’t come to Mr. Xiong’s gathering. An immigrant from Fuzhou City, Fujian Province confirmed independently to the Epoch Times that the President of a Fuzhou Fellowship Association received a Chinese Consulate’s notice saying not to support Mr. Xiong.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on March 16 that  five people were Chinese agents. Their actions included ruining Mr. Xiong’s election. Qiming Lin, a member of China’s State Security Department asked a private detective (who happened to be an FBI undercover agent) to defame Mr. Xiong, such as by digging into his past affairs looking for something to use against him  or tax evasion information or by setting him up with a woman, or directly beating him or creating a car accident.

An independent news commentator Ge Bidong shared a story about the Chinese Consulate’s interference on May 12, 2021. Ge and his friend running for a position visited Zhou. The President of the Shanghai Chinese Association was there. Zhou told them that the campaign in New York “cannot do without the Chinese Consulate” and the business associations and fellowship associations won’t let a person pass without the Chinese Consulate’s support for that candidate.

Mr. Ge and his candidate friend had previously been  imprisoned in China.

“The (Chinese) Consulate said that your things are an ‘internal conflicts’ but the Falun Gong issue is a ‘conflict with the enemy.’” Zhou told them, “As long as you are not Falun Gong, you will be fine.” Zhou also promised to take them to the Chinese Consulate and “all your things will be resolved.”

Source: Epoch Times, July 26, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/7/26/n13789113.htm.

Briefings | | |   @CS Government/Politics US-China Relations

The CCP Is Trying to Block the UN from Publishing a Xinjiang Report

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tried to block the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet from publishing the Xinjiang Human Rights report, which was planned to be published by the end of August.

Beijing sent Michelle Bachelet a letter asking her not to publish it. Beijing also tried to get diplomats from other countries to sign a joint letter to support Beijing.

Liu Yuyin, a spokesperson for China’s diplomatic mission in Geneva said that nearly 100 countries supported China on the Xinjiang issue, “opposing using human rights as an excuse to interfere with China’s internal affairs.” He said at the last UN Human Rights Council, which ended on July 8, that these countries issued public statements and a “joint letter.”

Source: Epoch Times, July 20, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/7/20/n13784940.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

U.S. Congressional Leader Plans to Visit Taiwan

The European Parliament Vice President, Nicola Beer, led a delegation to visit Taiwan from July 19 to July 21. This is the first time that a European Parliament Vice President officially visited Taiwan. Beer told reporters that, “Now is the moment to stand firm on the side of Taiwan,” calling Europe and the island part of a “family of democracies.” She said,“We won’t turn a blind eye to China’s threats to Taiwan.”  “Europe was late for Hong Kong, we won’t be late for Taiwan.”

In the U.S. the Speaker of the House,  Nancy Pelosi, has also been reported as planning to visit Taiwan in August. However, Biden said that the military believes it is not a good idea at the moment. China strongly opposed the Speaker’s trip both publicly and privately.

An article ridiculing Pelosi was widely published among Chinese media. It said that Pelosi’s trip was the Democrats’ plan to show that they are not too “soft” on Beijing. It also said that Pelosi’s plan was to gain some political points and get herself out of pressures from scandal. The article said many factors can still impact whether there will indeed be a trip. Maybe one day Pelosi will become “tactically COVID positive again.”  That statement referred back to April when Pelosi announced a planned trip to Taiwan but later cancelled it by claiming that she caught COVID.

Sources:
1. Radio France International, July 19, 2022
https://www.rfi.fr/cn/国际/20220719-欧洲议会副议长到访台湾-强调支持台湾民主
2. SINA, July 21, 2022
https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2022-07-21/doNc-imizmscv2950539.shtml

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend US-China Relations

Many Chinese Home Buyers Collectively Decide to Stop Paying Their Mortgage on an Unfinished Home

The Chinese real estate industry has faced several ripple effects after many developers struggled or defaulted on their debt payments. Not only do investors and banks face losses, but constructions of many buildings have also been halted for months if not years and home buyers were not sure when they will eventually receive their homes. For some buildings, the builders have no intention to complete the construction and will just leave them in the unfinished status forever; the Chinese call them the “rotten-tail buildings.”

Unlike the U.S. the home-selling practice where the home buyers sign a contract with the builder when the building is constructed and take out a mortgage when the home is delivered, Chinese buyers take out the mortgage at the time of signing the contract and start the payment right away, even though they don’t have the house.

This presents a big, unfair problems for the home buyers.  They are paying mortgages to banks while seeing no progress in the construction of their homes.

Getting no help on these unfinished buildings from the builders, the banks, and the government, many home buyers resolved to a new approach: collectively announcing they would stop their mortgage payment.

On June 30, all home buyers of an unfinished construction project in Jingdezhen City, Jiangxi Province announced jointly on social media that they would stop mortgage payments until the builder resumes construction. This started a wave of home buyers’ stopping their mortgage payments. By June 16, according to NTDTV’s report, home buyers of at least 270 project (a project may consist of multiple buildings) throughout China, including Jiangxi, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, and other provinces, have made similar announcements,

Technically, the unfinished building is a dispute between the home buyers and the real estate developers, not involving the bank. Banks can still hold the buyers accountable for their payments and have the option to freeze and auction buyers’ own personal properties and put them on a bad credit list, if they stop their payment. However, since home purchasing accounts for a significant portion of spending for many Chinese families, these home buyers feel that they have nothing more to lose.

Some home buyers have also found ways to accuse the banks. Some banks didn’t put their payment in proper escrow accounts, some banks released the funds to real estate developers though the construction didn’t reach the required funding stage, and some banks purposely created bad mortgage contracts to steal the home buyers’ money.

This stopping payment wave also spread to real estate developers’ suppliers and contractors. On July 15, an announcement circulated on the Internet that suppliers and contractors in Hubei Province supporting the Evergrande Group decided to stop providing funding and materials and stop doing work if they do not receive Evergrande’s payment up front.

Sources:
1. SINA, July 13, 2022
https://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/cyxw/2022-07-13/doc-imizmscv1383585.shtml
2. Epoch Times, July 14, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/7/14/n13781035.htm
3. NTDTV, July 16, 2022
https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2in022/07/16/a103480739.html

Briefings | | |   @CS Economy/Resources

Chinese Military Attaché Driven Out of Pacific Islands Forum

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been trying to expand its influence over the Pacific Islands for years. It successfully signed a security treaty with the Solomon Islands which allows for police and military exchanges. However, at the China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers’ meeting in May, its recent push for a similar security treaty with the whole group of island countries did not go through.

The latest development was at the Pacific Islands Forum which was held in Suva, Fiji from July 12 to 15. When U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris was delivering an online speech on July 13, two Chinese officials entered the media section without proper identification. A Fiji news reporter recognized one of them and asked what his identity was. Was he a Chinese embassy official or a Xinhua news reporter? The Chinese official shook his head as if he didn’t understand English. The Fiji reporter then informed the meeting organizer and the police came to remove those two Chinese officials.

Later people in the diplomat circle confirmed that these two people were the Military Attaché and Deputy Military Attaché from the Chinese Embassy in Fiji.

Source: Radio France International, July 13, 2022
https://www.rfi.fr/cn/中国/20220713-贺锦丽正说着话-两名中国使馆武官遭太平洋岛国论坛会议警方驱离

Briefings | | |   @CS Geo-Strategic Trend