CCP provides health care for densely populated China. Done.
Chinese Economics Thread
- Thread starter Norfolk
- Start date
CCP provides health care for densely populated China. Done.
Then the writer doesn't understand the difference between China and Asia. Hendrik was discussing about Asia and delft suddenly speaking thanks to CCP, they are two different topics.
broadsword
Brigadier
The news coming from the western media had been that health care had been on the back burner during China's economic transformation. Anecdotes coming from Chinese who had migrated overseas reinforced the impression. But this statement from the Bloomberg report, "Government spending on health was $155 per person in 2011, from $19 in 2002, according to WHO data.", shows that western media have not been brought up to speed. China is making progress in health care.
solarz
Brigadier
You should read the rest of the conversation. Hendrik was responding to a comment about long lines at the hospital in *China*.
broadsword
Brigadier
Across China, Skyscrapers Brush the Heavens
Timothy O'Rourke for The New York Times
Broad Group, the manufacturer behind the project, plans to use factory-built modules of steel and concrete.
By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: August 27, 2013
CHANGSHA, China — China is slowing down, but the buildings keep going up — until now.
[video]Multimedia[/video]
Graphic
A Record Skyscraper for China
Related
An Ambitious Construction Schedule Using Prefab Modules, With Questions (August 28, 2013)
Timothy O'Rourke for The New York Times
Work has begun at the site of the proposed 202-story skyscraper in Hunan Province, though final approval is still “in progress” from building safety experts.
Timothy O'Rourke for The New York Times
Zhang Yue, the founder of Broad Group, made his fortune selling energy-efficient central air-conditioning systems. He is confident the project will be completed.
Timothy O'Rourke for The New York Times
A 30-story hotel that was built in 15 days by Broad Group.
China is home to 60 of the world’s 100 tallest buildings now under construction. But the skyward aspirations of Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, have inspired incredulity tinged with hostility.
Broad Group, a manufacturer based here in Changsha, has been planning to erect the world’s tallest building here this winter, and in record time. The 202-story “Sky City” is supposed to be assembled in only four months from factory-built modules of steel and concrete early next year on the city’s outskirts. The digging of foundations began on July 20.
But the project’s scale and speed have set off a burst of national introspection in recent days about whether Chinese municipal leaders and developers have gone too far in their increasingly manic reach for the skies.
“The vanity of some local government officials has determined the skylines of cities,” an editorial in the People’s Daily newspaper, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, said on Aug. 12.
On Tuesday, the tycoon behind the project said in a telephone interview that he had ordered a pause in work at the site while waiting for further approvals from regulators in Beijing.
“It’s because of all the concern in the media and on the Internet, the government is a little wary and has slowed down the process,” said Zhang Yue, the chairman of the Broad Group.
But he vowed to finish the building, saying that he expected a delay of no more than two to three months, with completion of the building in June or July next year instead of the original plan of finishing it in April. Workers have already dug a large hole in the ground for the foundations and have just laid a four-lane road to the site to bring in heavy equipment.
“No matter how high the obstacles, I will for certain overcome them to make sure this project is completed,” Mr. Zhang said. He declined to identify who in Beijing had delayed his project, but said that he had not been asked to make any adjustments to the design.
David Scott, a prominent structural engineer in London who has worked on many extremely tall buildings, said that regulatory delays were a periodic problem for such projects all over the world, but could usually be overcome.
Local officials here say that while they have transferred the land for Sky City to Broad Group and have been installing electricity and water lines for the project, final approval for the project is still “in progress” from building safety experts in Beijing.
The blueprints for Sky City call for a stack of long, skinny rectangles that taper to a narrow top, like a very tall and angular wedding cake. It bears a blocky resemblance to the 110-story Willis Tower in Chicago, formerly the Sears Tower, which was the world’s tallest building until 1998 but is now being left in the shade by numerous rivals.
Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chongqing, each similar in population to metropolitan New York, are now finishing one building apiece that will top the Willis Tower.
Wuhan, the size of greater Houston, is erecting two buildings taller than the Willis Tower and Tianjin, the size of metropolitan Chicago, is constructing three, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the Chicago nonprofit that tracks skyscraper bragging rights.
Ambitious local officials, together with state-owned companies and state-owned banks, stand behind most of these projects, raising fears that taxpayers may eventually pick up the bill if projects prove uneconomical.
“If you let the market decide, I don’t think a lot of these tall buildings would proceed,” said Chau Kwong Wing, a professor of real estate and construction at Hong Kong University. Despite public concerns, there is no sign so far that any of the many very tall buildings under construction in China has been canceled by regulators in Beijing, he and Mr. Zhang both noted.
Sky City is the most ambitious project of all, and so it has become the lightning rod for criticism of the trend. Chinese media have been openly skeptical about the project, questioning its safety, construction speed and the wisdom of relying on prefabricated modules.
But work nonetheless continued earlier this month at the site. Bulldozers sliced slabs of earth and six drilling rigs bored holes for a drainage system.
Mr. Zhang said in an interview at his headquarters here on Aug. 7 that he had all the approvals needed to start work, and he and other executives said that it was common in China to keep working pending further approvals.
If built as planned, the building would be only 10 meters, or 33 feet, taller than the 2,722-foot Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest building since 2010. Sky City would cram 39 more floors into its height than the Burj Khalifa, partly because Sky City would be mostly apartments, which do not need the same hollow spaces under the floors as offices require for wiring and cooling. At Sky City, the ventilation shafts, electrical wiring and even indoor floor tiles will also be packed into the modules while they are still at the factory.
The bottom 15 floors would include offices, a school with kindergarten through eighth grade and clinics. A schematic from Broad Group shows a hotel near the top and a restaurant and coffee shop at the apex.
The emphasis on apartments reflects the reviving real estate boom in China — some in China and abroad call it a bubble — as the government has told state-owned banks to lend more in recent months, in response to signs of weaker economic growth.
Mr. Zhang insisted that the local government in Changsha is not bankrolling his project. But he said for the first time in the interview at his headquarters on Aug. 7 that while Broad Group remains the official owner of the building, he has negotiated deals in recent months for the sale of practically the entire building to “four or five” investment companies.
He said then that not all of these deals have been completed; on Tuesday, he declined to comment on whether the delay would affect his financing.
He declined to identify the buyers except to say that they were in the private sector, not part of the government, and were spending their own money instead of relying on bank loans. That would be an extremely unusual combination in China, where most large real estate developments depend on low-rate loans that politically connected companies and individuals obtain from state-owned banks.
Mr. Zhang made his first fortune selling energy-efficient central air conditioning systems. He then moved into construction four years ago, setting up what are now six factories here. Each factory is the length of five football fields laid end to end, and manufactures 13-foot by 51-foot modules for the assembly of high-rises.
Mr. Zhang is trying to sell franchises for building module factories to construction companies and steel mills around the world.
Mr. Zhang exudes confidence that Sky City tower will be built soon, even at the risk of immodesty. “Things that I envision are definitely going to get done, no doubt,” he said in an interview at his headquarters. “Ordinary people do not know the challenges and issues I face every single day. There are so many issues, 24 hours in a day are not enough for me to deal with all of them.”
People’s Daily was more glum, noting that the Empire State Building, completed in 1931, took about two decades to fill and become a commercial success — and was initially nicknamed the “Empty State Building.”
Hilda Wang contributed reporting.
Timothy O'Rourke for The New York Times
Broad Group, the manufacturer behind the project, plans to use factory-built modules of steel and concrete.
By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: August 27, 2013
CHANGSHA, China — China is slowing down, but the buildings keep going up — until now.
[video]Multimedia[/video]
Graphic
A Record Skyscraper for China
Related
An Ambitious Construction Schedule Using Prefab Modules, With Questions (August 28, 2013)
Timothy O'Rourke for The New York Times
Work has begun at the site of the proposed 202-story skyscraper in Hunan Province, though final approval is still “in progress” from building safety experts.
Timothy O'Rourke for The New York Times
Zhang Yue, the founder of Broad Group, made his fortune selling energy-efficient central air-conditioning systems. He is confident the project will be completed.
Timothy O'Rourke for The New York Times
A 30-story hotel that was built in 15 days by Broad Group.
China is home to 60 of the world’s 100 tallest buildings now under construction. But the skyward aspirations of Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, have inspired incredulity tinged with hostility.
Broad Group, a manufacturer based here in Changsha, has been planning to erect the world’s tallest building here this winter, and in record time. The 202-story “Sky City” is supposed to be assembled in only four months from factory-built modules of steel and concrete early next year on the city’s outskirts. The digging of foundations began on July 20.
But the project’s scale and speed have set off a burst of national introspection in recent days about whether Chinese municipal leaders and developers have gone too far in their increasingly manic reach for the skies.
“The vanity of some local government officials has determined the skylines of cities,” an editorial in the People’s Daily newspaper, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, said on Aug. 12.
On Tuesday, the tycoon behind the project said in a telephone interview that he had ordered a pause in work at the site while waiting for further approvals from regulators in Beijing.
“It’s because of all the concern in the media and on the Internet, the government is a little wary and has slowed down the process,” said Zhang Yue, the chairman of the Broad Group.
But he vowed to finish the building, saying that he expected a delay of no more than two to three months, with completion of the building in June or July next year instead of the original plan of finishing it in April. Workers have already dug a large hole in the ground for the foundations and have just laid a four-lane road to the site to bring in heavy equipment.
“No matter how high the obstacles, I will for certain overcome them to make sure this project is completed,” Mr. Zhang said. He declined to identify who in Beijing had delayed his project, but said that he had not been asked to make any adjustments to the design.
David Scott, a prominent structural engineer in London who has worked on many extremely tall buildings, said that regulatory delays were a periodic problem for such projects all over the world, but could usually be overcome.
Local officials here say that while they have transferred the land for Sky City to Broad Group and have been installing electricity and water lines for the project, final approval for the project is still “in progress” from building safety experts in Beijing.
The blueprints for Sky City call for a stack of long, skinny rectangles that taper to a narrow top, like a very tall and angular wedding cake. It bears a blocky resemblance to the 110-story Willis Tower in Chicago, formerly the Sears Tower, which was the world’s tallest building until 1998 but is now being left in the shade by numerous rivals.
Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chongqing, each similar in population to metropolitan New York, are now finishing one building apiece that will top the Willis Tower.
Wuhan, the size of greater Houston, is erecting two buildings taller than the Willis Tower and Tianjin, the size of metropolitan Chicago, is constructing three, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the Chicago nonprofit that tracks skyscraper bragging rights.
Ambitious local officials, together with state-owned companies and state-owned banks, stand behind most of these projects, raising fears that taxpayers may eventually pick up the bill if projects prove uneconomical.
“If you let the market decide, I don’t think a lot of these tall buildings would proceed,” said Chau Kwong Wing, a professor of real estate and construction at Hong Kong University. Despite public concerns, there is no sign so far that any of the many very tall buildings under construction in China has been canceled by regulators in Beijing, he and Mr. Zhang both noted.
Sky City is the most ambitious project of all, and so it has become the lightning rod for criticism of the trend. Chinese media have been openly skeptical about the project, questioning its safety, construction speed and the wisdom of relying on prefabricated modules.
But work nonetheless continued earlier this month at the site. Bulldozers sliced slabs of earth and six drilling rigs bored holes for a drainage system.
Mr. Zhang said in an interview at his headquarters here on Aug. 7 that he had all the approvals needed to start work, and he and other executives said that it was common in China to keep working pending further approvals.
If built as planned, the building would be only 10 meters, or 33 feet, taller than the 2,722-foot Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest building since 2010. Sky City would cram 39 more floors into its height than the Burj Khalifa, partly because Sky City would be mostly apartments, which do not need the same hollow spaces under the floors as offices require for wiring and cooling. At Sky City, the ventilation shafts, electrical wiring and even indoor floor tiles will also be packed into the modules while they are still at the factory.
The bottom 15 floors would include offices, a school with kindergarten through eighth grade and clinics. A schematic from Broad Group shows a hotel near the top and a restaurant and coffee shop at the apex.
The emphasis on apartments reflects the reviving real estate boom in China — some in China and abroad call it a bubble — as the government has told state-owned banks to lend more in recent months, in response to signs of weaker economic growth.
Mr. Zhang insisted that the local government in Changsha is not bankrolling his project. But he said for the first time in the interview at his headquarters on Aug. 7 that while Broad Group remains the official owner of the building, he has negotiated deals in recent months for the sale of practically the entire building to “four or five” investment companies.
He said then that not all of these deals have been completed; on Tuesday, he declined to comment on whether the delay would affect his financing.
He declined to identify the buyers except to say that they were in the private sector, not part of the government, and were spending their own money instead of relying on bank loans. That would be an extremely unusual combination in China, where most large real estate developments depend on low-rate loans that politically connected companies and individuals obtain from state-owned banks.
Mr. Zhang made his first fortune selling energy-efficient central air conditioning systems. He then moved into construction four years ago, setting up what are now six factories here. Each factory is the length of five football fields laid end to end, and manufactures 13-foot by 51-foot modules for the assembly of high-rises.
Mr. Zhang is trying to sell franchises for building module factories to construction companies and steel mills around the world.
Mr. Zhang exudes confidence that Sky City tower will be built soon, even at the risk of immodesty. “Things that I envision are definitely going to get done, no doubt,” he said in an interview at his headquarters. “Ordinary people do not know the challenges and issues I face every single day. There are so many issues, 24 hours in a day are not enough for me to deal with all of them.”
People’s Daily was more glum, noting that the Empire State Building, completed in 1931, took about two decades to fill and become a commercial success — and was initially nicknamed the “Empty State Building.”
Hilda Wang contributed reporting.
It appears that there is a skyscrapper bubble in china.
In fact, it appears that everything in china is a bubble now. I wonder how all of that will pan out in a few years from now. These guys are trying their luck.
In4ser
Junior Member
China’s one-child policy could be causing its trillion-dollar housing boom—and its eventual bust
By Gwynn Guilford @sinoceros September 18, 2013
Eight reasons why China's housing market keeps climbing. Reuters/Bobby Yip
China’s one-child policy, which since 1979 has limited most Chinese couples to a single child, is notorious for having accelerated the rate of China’s aging. It’s also created a glut of young men who can’t find Chinese wives; by 2020, bachelor ranks will swell to between 30 million and 35 million—equal to the population of Canada.
But lovelorn suitors aren’t the only fallout from China’s draconian population controls, says Zhang Xiaobo, a Peking University economist. ”I just returned to Beijing [from Washington, DC], and housing prices are three times that of DC,” Zhang tells Quartz. ”If you look at all the indicators there’s a housing bubble. But despite the very low economic returns, people [keep buying].”
The reason? Intensified marriage market competition, says Zhang. ”The reason is that people have to buy a house in order to get married,” he says, explaining that the mothers of most brides will accept only grooms who can provide a home for their daughter.
This, says Zhang, is what has made home prices so unaffordable (a small Beijing two-bedroom is about $330,614—what an average Beijinger earns in 32 years). And, ironically, the one-child policy will eventually reverse this trend, knocking the floor out of the market.
China’s gender gap drives 30% to 48% of home price increases
China’s gender imbalance contributed 30% to 48% (pdf, p.37) of the rise in real home prices in 35 major cities from 2003 to 2009, according to research Zhang and two colleagues conducted. Home values rose more sharply in cities with many more young men than young women.
On the horizontal axis is the sex ratio of those aged 5-19; on the vertical axis is the ratio of housing value to household income in 2004."Status Competition and Housing Prices," Shang-Jin Wei, Xiaobo Zhang and Yin Liu
My son’s house is bigger than your son’s house
And this wasn’t just in cities. Even in rural areas, Zhang and his colleagues found farmers aggressively investing in homes for their sons, usually either because a local matchmaker said they needed to if they wanted to attract a wife, or because of rising local “bride prices,” the reverse-dowry that grooms must pay. (That price now exceeds $20,000 in some provinces.)
“If the matchmaker tells them they need to build a taller house, they make it a little bit taller than neighbors,” says Zhang. “Families are building two-story or three-story houses, but if you go to second or third floor, there’s no furniture at all—it’s only to show off their wealth… to make sure their son will get married.”
How the one-child policy will lead to the housing market’s collapse
Because they lack siblings, the vast majority of Chinese couples 34 and younger are the sole inheritors of four parents’ wealth. When they die, their offspring get at least two extra homes (and, given investment trends, likely more). This extra supply will drive down prices, says Zhang, and because of the one-child policy, China will have too few young people to absorb the overspill.
This will sink in by around 2020. But the policy could affect the market even sooner. China’s working age population—the most likely new homebuyers—is about to start falling (official statistics say it peaked in 2012; the UN says 2015).
Meanwhile, China’s sex ratio peaked in 2005. Only children leaving the nest and move into their parents’ extra apartments and cooling bachelor competition will lower demand for new homes.
Of course, China’s housing market is notoriously unpredictable. But if Zhang and his colleagues are right—that marriage market competition is propping up home values—then China will have even more to regret about the one-child policy than it already does.
Source:
By Gwynn Guilford @sinoceros September 18, 2013
Eight reasons why China's housing market keeps climbing. Reuters/Bobby Yip
China’s one-child policy, which since 1979 has limited most Chinese couples to a single child, is notorious for having accelerated the rate of China’s aging. It’s also created a glut of young men who can’t find Chinese wives; by 2020, bachelor ranks will swell to between 30 million and 35 million—equal to the population of Canada.
But lovelorn suitors aren’t the only fallout from China’s draconian population controls, says Zhang Xiaobo, a Peking University economist. ”I just returned to Beijing [from Washington, DC], and housing prices are three times that of DC,” Zhang tells Quartz. ”If you look at all the indicators there’s a housing bubble. But despite the very low economic returns, people [keep buying].”
The reason? Intensified marriage market competition, says Zhang. ”The reason is that people have to buy a house in order to get married,” he says, explaining that the mothers of most brides will accept only grooms who can provide a home for their daughter.
This, says Zhang, is what has made home prices so unaffordable (a small Beijing two-bedroom is about $330,614—what an average Beijinger earns in 32 years). And, ironically, the one-child policy will eventually reverse this trend, knocking the floor out of the market.
China’s gender gap drives 30% to 48% of home price increases
China’s gender imbalance contributed 30% to 48% (pdf, p.37) of the rise in real home prices in 35 major cities from 2003 to 2009, according to research Zhang and two colleagues conducted. Home values rose more sharply in cities with many more young men than young women.
On the horizontal axis is the sex ratio of those aged 5-19; on the vertical axis is the ratio of housing value to household income in 2004."Status Competition and Housing Prices," Shang-Jin Wei, Xiaobo Zhang and Yin Liu
My son’s house is bigger than your son’s house
And this wasn’t just in cities. Even in rural areas, Zhang and his colleagues found farmers aggressively investing in homes for their sons, usually either because a local matchmaker said they needed to if they wanted to attract a wife, or because of rising local “bride prices,” the reverse-dowry that grooms must pay. (That price now exceeds $20,000 in some provinces.)
“If the matchmaker tells them they need to build a taller house, they make it a little bit taller than neighbors,” says Zhang. “Families are building two-story or three-story houses, but if you go to second or third floor, there’s no furniture at all—it’s only to show off their wealth… to make sure their son will get married.”
How the one-child policy will lead to the housing market’s collapse
Because they lack siblings, the vast majority of Chinese couples 34 and younger are the sole inheritors of four parents’ wealth. When they die, their offspring get at least two extra homes (and, given investment trends, likely more). This extra supply will drive down prices, says Zhang, and because of the one-child policy, China will have too few young people to absorb the overspill.
This will sink in by around 2020. But the policy could affect the market even sooner. China’s working age population—the most likely new homebuyers—is about to start falling (official statistics say it peaked in 2012; the UN says 2015).
Meanwhile, China’s sex ratio peaked in 2005. Only children leaving the nest and move into their parents’ extra apartments and cooling bachelor competition will lower demand for new homes.
Of course, China’s housing market is notoriously unpredictable. But if Zhang and his colleagues are right—that marriage market competition is propping up home values—then China will have even more to regret about the one-child policy than it already does.
Source:
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
That's nonsense. So all those ghost cities are men buying property to attract wives? Isn't the property bubble about no one buying all these properties thus there are ghost cities? I thought China was poor. But according to this article prices are higher than Washington DC. So all these single men have this much money? And they got this money from their parents. Where did their old peasant parents get the money? That many peasants made that much money?
In4ser
Junior Member
No where in the article does it over-generalize and say one child policy is the sole reason of the property bubble and ghost towns so you're jumping to conclusions. It is definitely one of the biggest contributors of the bubble and applicable for the Chinese middle class which by the way is around 300 million with others being overzealous investors, and corruption. Believe me as my friends in China confirmed to me how expensive it is living there, where just purchasing an apartment can cost 1 million USD or more. China should end the One Child Policy ASAP, it has served its purpose but childbirths and fertility rates are not a switch that can be easily turn back on when switched off, as developed countries have discovered.
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