Bloomberg reports today that
House prices in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou are plunging ....
Construction of homes, offices and factories fell at least 16.6 percent in October after rising 32.5 percent a year earlier, according to Macquarie Securities Ltd. That's squeezing an economy already slowed by recessions in the U.S., Japan and Europe that have cut demand for exports. Building is the biggest driver of China's expansion, contributing a quarter of fixed- asset investment and employing 77 million people.
....“China is now at the heart of the global slowdown,” said Jim Walker, chief economist at Asianomics Ltd., an economic advisory firm in Hong Kong. . . . [He] estimates China will grow zero to 4 percent next year, with a 30 percent chance of a contraction.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm . . .
collapsing property prices, crashing stock market, now where have I heard that before???
Yes
but the situation in the US is unlikely to degenerate into full on social collapse here.
In China, the CCP needs 7%+ growth annually to keep a lid on the simmering social situation there. There have been something like 80,000+ disruptions of social order large enough that they require the security forces to intervene.
With the number of people being put on the street in Guangdong in particular, there's going to be serious social unrest, unless the government steps in with a program of Keynesian spending. Which they have to the tune of $586 billion to improve domestic infrastructure and targeted social welfare programs.
This is a good start, but the question is what happens when the dollar reserves run out. At that point, the CCP may have to consider a strategy shift to stay in power. From economic development to the nascent, but nonetheless very powerful,nationalist sentiment in the country.
Chinese who were educated before the 1980s where likely exposed to textbooks that included maps that showed large portions of East Asia that had tribute relations with the Chinese Empire, as territories "lost" in the old democratic period (1840-1919) this includes the Russian Far East, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, the Spratly and Paracel island chains, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Assam, Sikkim, Bhutan, and Nepal.
Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the region, China sat at the center of a vast unequal trade system disguised as tribute relations to conform with the low regard Confucians held for merchants.
If the Chinese turn to nationalism there could be serious conflict with some of these countries. Right now the Chinese and Russians are buddy, buddy, but Siberia holds a vast treasure or oil, gas, and minerals that would allow the Chinese a more secure energy supply than the one they have now coming from the Middle East and Africa, which has multiple bottlenecks that could be closed.
very good points on China
Their percentages are deceptive simply because there are 1.3 billion people in China. Additionally, the cyber war games originating from China, the stealing of U.S. technology and especially advanced military technology, espionage plus their military build up is something to be paid attention to and unfortunately that is completely ignored.
I'll disagree a tad on the Chinese returning to nationalism. They have always been nationalistic, especially when it comes to economic, trade strategy.