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Chinese property developers have been struggling to meet sales goals, as homebuyers shun the market amid pandemic controls and a weak economic outlook. Government efforts to stimulate the sector have fallen short, forcing localities to turn to stronger measures.
Meanwhile, officials in Henan province have been accused of abusing the local health code system by blocking the movement of petitioners whose funds have been frozen by several rural banks in the Central China province. This raises serious questions about who controls China’s health code apps.
In the global crypto space, the trend toward plowing cash into crypto and blockchain companies could see a cooldown amid a bear market and industry-wide contagion fears.
# Property Market #
China’s Efforts to Prop Up Property Market Fall Short
China’s real estate market has been in freefall for months, after tough regulatory curbs on developers’ borrowings pushed it into a crisis of liquidity and confidence.
Though around 100 cities tweaked their property policies in May, the sales of the top 100 developers were still down 59.4% year-on-year, according to data from property consultancy China Real Estate Information Corp (CRIC). However, they did rise 5.6% from the previous month.
Ultra-Easy Home Loan Policy Raises Eyebrows
A Chinese city has announced one of the laxest mortgage policies among local governments this year in the hope of shoring up weak housing sales. But some analysts have warned it carries risks for lenders.
The branch of Huaxia Bank Co. Ltd. in Wenzhou, East China’s Zhejiang province, will allow certain homebuyers to repay only their mortgage interest in the first three years, saying they can begin to repay the principal starting in the fourth year, according to a statement from the local government which has signed an agreement with the bank.
Housing Crash Forces Developers to Slash Sales Goals
Chinese real estate developers are struggling to meet sales goals as homebuyers stay away amid pandemic controls and a weak economic outlook despite government efforts to bolster the property market.
Among the 14 publicly traded real estate businesses that have disclosed annual sales goals, nearly 80% said they reached less than 30% of their targets by the end of May according to a survey by the market research firm China Real Estate Information Corp. (CRIC). More than 50% reported hitting less than 25% of their goals, the survey found.
# Crypto #
In Depth: Trouble at Crypto Hedge Fund Sparks Contagion Fears
Rumors of cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital being on the brink of insolvency have sent shockwaves through the crypto space, with industry observers predicting more trouble for the decentralized finance (DeFi) sphere as contagion spreads.
Three Arrows, also known as 3AC, is one of the highest-profile players in DeFi — a crypto ecosystem aiming to bypass traditional financial intermediaries through blockchain technology. With an estimated $10 billion in assets under management (AUM) in March according to blockchain analytics platform Nansen, the fund has invested in a number of crypto and DeFi firms.
In Depth: Will the Bear Market End the Blockchain Funding Frenzy?
Investors have plowed cash into crypto and blockchain companies at an unprecedented pace in 2022, but some say this trend will slow as the bear market diminishes their appetite for risky speculative investments.
Crypto and blockchain companies raised at least around $26.4 billion across 992 deals in the first five months of the year, triple the $8.8 billion recorded in the same period last year, according to data from Dove Metrics, a crypto fundraising database.
# Singapore #
In Depth: Why Relocating Mainlanders See Singapore as a Safe Haven for Their Businesses and Property
When Chen Xi and her family searched for their first home in Singapore after relocating from Beijing, they realized their budget for the right kind of property would need to be a lot higher.
The impact of the pandemic meant new housing developments in Singapore were on hold, and with the reopening of the border, foreigners were arriving en masse to work and study, which meant demand far exceeded supply in the island state.
Archive Interview: Lee Hsien Loong on What Singapore Can – and Can’t – Teach China
Eight years ago, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sat for an exclusive interview with Caixin, in which he touched upon a wide range of topics from how to maintain Singaporean economic competitiveness to how Singapore positions itself in the regional and international geopolitical landscape.
Today, we are living in a quite different world. First, the Covid-19 pandemic and then the Russia-Ukraine war —a global health challenge combined with escalating geopolitical tensions — has put a brake on what has been taken for granted such as globalization at best and turned peace and development upside down at worst. As a city-state in one of the most dynamic while at the same time tension-prone regions in the world, Singapore has much more to digest and adapt to amid such a once-in-a-century transformation. Opportunities remain but challenges could be greater and harder to navigate. If flexibility and pragmatism are the hallmark of a successful Singapore, resilience needs to become a defining characteristic for Singapore in the years to come.
# Health Code #
Caixin Explains: Who Controls China’s Health Code Apps
Accusations emerged on Chinese social media that authorities in Zhengzhou, Henan province, appeared to be using a health risk scoring system to target depositors around the country whose funds were frozen by local rural banks.
Those depositors had found that their health code had recently turned red even though they hadn’t traveled a Covid-risk area. The red health code prevented them from traveling freely to Henan to withdraw their money.
Did Henan Authorities Abuse Virus Controls to Stymie Swindled Bank Depositors?
Officials in central China’s Henan province may have violated criminal law by abusing a health code system designed for pandemic control to block the mobility of petitioners swindled in a multibillion-dollar financial scam, a legal expert said.
A social media article that went viral reported that a number of people across China unexpectedly saw their health codes turn red when they arrived in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan, or planned to go there. A red code flags high risk of virus exposure and blocks people from free movement.
# Weekend Long Read #
Chinese History Offers Lessons on Sustaining Charitable Giving
Throughout China’s history, influential figures have committed to charitable acts to serve the community. Such philanthropy was not systematic, organized, or passed on to the following generation, but it did lay the foundation for the clan and merchant charity of later years. Meanwhile, the relationship between private acts of charity and the government has featured complex individual and temporal variations.
As early as the Three Kingdoms period (220-280), Cui Guang from the Wei (魏) state (220-266) described the concept of charity as one of altruism instead of self-interest.
