Wukan and Real Estate Bubble (final version)

choi

Today I am in Boston Public Library, where computers are available for 15-minute period. So I can not publish a posting when I complete it, but have to post it frequently. You will have to get back to the postings again and again. When I am done with a certain posting, I will signal with "Final version."

(1) Editorial: We All Have a Stake in China’s Real Estate Bubble. Washington Posty, Dec 24, 2011.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/op ... QAmtSMEP_story.html

(2) Compare

David Pierson, China Grapples With Mass Migration From Villages to Cities; Tom Miller, author of 'Urban Billion,' discusses the planning pitfalls Beijing faces as hundreds of millions of Chinese become city dwellers. Los Angeles Times, Dec 24, 2011.
[/url]http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-china-miller-qa-20111224,0,24109.story[/url]

Quote from Mr Miller:

"Until 10 years ago, very few people lived in property with their own bathroom. You'd be lucky to have your own tap for water.

"It [China] has to go with concentrated living because it doesn't have the available land for people to have their own house and their own yard. A lot of my American friends come to Beijing and say it looks like a city in the Midwest because everything is so spread out and big. Cities are sprawling in China, particularly Beijing, which has been built around a car economy. Beijing is an example of how not to do things.

"One thing China does well is infrastructure. Whatever you may think of the financing behind it, they're very good at building stuff, and this is the biggest subway building boom the world has ever seen. And it's absolutely necessary. It's the only possible way of moving people around.

Note:
(a) rough-and-ready (adj):
"crude in nature, method, or manner but effective in action or use <a rough–and–ready solution>"
www.m-w.com
(b) Mr Miller talks about "buildings clad with bathroom tiles" in China. Well, do not worry, foreigners were also puzzled why buildings in Taiwan were like that. but Taiwanese considered, and still consider, it a form of beauty. (I have no idea where the fad came from, but I know most Taiwanese did it.) Different peoples have different tastes, you know.
(c)
(i) undergird (vt):
": to form the basis or foundation of : strengthen, support <facts and statistics subtly undergird his commentary — Susan Q. Stranahan>"
(ii) gird (vt): "to encircle or bind with a flexible band (as a belt)"
(d) Regarding "people to have their own house and their own yard" in quotation 2. The first year I came to United States, in Chicago, I was impressed that ordinary Americans had a small yard in front or the back of their single-family homes. I told Americans so in parties ("Taiwanese would think this is a villa") and a few were confused or tongue-tied. Then I saw America more and realized the houses I had visited were of possibly lower middle class or even poor. A porch with a tiny yard was nothing to boast about in America, whereas appartment buildings in Taiwan--we did not have single-family, standing-alone houses--did not have a yard at all.

(3) Haimen
(a) Joe McDonald, Chinese Villagers Demand Release of Detainees. Associated Press, Dec 24, 2011 (5 hours ago)
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/ar ... tainees-2423151.php
("Protesters gathered Saturday outside a town hall in southern China to appeal for the release of people detained during demonstrations over a planned power plant expansion, a witness said. About 1,000 people took part in the appeal in Haimen, on China's southeastern coast, said the witness, who was contacted by phone and refused to give his name")
(b) South China Town Unrest Cools After Dialogue. AFP, Dec 24, 2011 (7 hours ago)
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/south-c ... ogue-075427569.html
("Tenuous calm returned Saturday to" Haimen, citing Xinhua and a travel agent surnamed Lin)
(c) Highway Reopens As Four-Day Protest Ends. xinhua, Dec 24, 2011 (13:28 Beijing Time; 10 hours ago)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/chi ... ontent_14321967.htm

My comment: I do not know how to explain the discrepancy between AP (in (a)) and AFP/Xinhua. It could be that AP interviewed, by phone, a person only--without cross check. It could also be that Xinhua made the report earlier than the later gathering reported by AP.

(4) 3 Wukan Protesting Villagers Released on Bail. China.org.cn, Dec 23, 2011.
http://www.china.org.cn/china/2011-12/23/content_24233997.htm
(Wukan)