Day: August 19, 2022

The number of Chinese homebuyers boycotting their mortgage repayments in protest at unfinished buildings has spread to more than 300 locations across the country, according to a GitHub page documenting the action.

Mortgage boycotts are being organized by buyers of property in 12 unfinished projects in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing, seven in Shanghai, eight in Guangdong province, nine in Nanning and 10 in Taiyuan, with hundreds of other locations reported throughout China, reports posted by homebuyers to the WeNeedHome GitHub page showed.

Buyers have been left high and dry after buying apartments off-plan, or before completion, only to find that developers have downed tools and abandoned half-finished buildings they once hoped to call home, or use as an investment.

Now, they are increasingly banding together and issuing “mortgage repayment suspension notices” to lenders, with both sides calling on the government to act in their favor.

“In an attempt to keep payments going, buyers made repeated trips to the relevant government departments and agencies in charge to request assistance and to stand up for our rights,” a statement issued by buyers of apartments in an unfinished complex in Dalian’s Lüshunkou district wrote.

“But there seems to be no sign that work will ever start again on the development,” it said.

Another statement from buyers in Hantou county, Changde city says: “We have been forced to stop mortgage payments due to the huge losses sustained by the majority of buyers.”

Meanwhile, a statement from buyers in the northern city of Taiyuan accuses banks of fueling the crisis by illegally transferring loans to developers, refuses to issue any more monthly repayments until the buildings are finished, and calls for an end to “punishments” handed down to buyers who take such action.

Xie Tian, a professor of business studies at the University of South Carolina, said the movement could have a serious impact on the Chinese economy.

“The suspension of mortgage repayments can lead to systemic financial problems … because of the large sums of money involved,” Xie told RFA. “Also, these are middle-class people with money and assets.”

Drop in investment

China’s National Bureau of Statistics released data on Aug. 15 showing a 6.4 drop in investment in real estate development between January and July this year, with teal estate investment falling by 12.3 percent year-on-year in July.

Newly started projects fell by 45.4 percent year on year, the biggest fall since February 2013, and loans made to developers by Chinese banks fell by 36.8 percent in July, Reuters reported.

U.S.-based financial journalist Wang Jian said rumors were reported that the Chinese government would support banks to issue loans to developers get the buildings finished, but so far had yet to be substantiated.

“There are several issues to be resolved here, because they can’t accidentally bury the banks, which are carrying a great deal of risk,” Wang said. “On the one hand, you have the individual buyers, the victims of the unfinished buildings crisis, and on the other is the banks.”

“If they lend more money to developers, it could create more bad debts and an eventual collapse [in the banking system],” he said.

“The only solution [for buyers] is to boycott mortgage repayments and force the suspension of the mortgages, which will drag the commercial banks into the water too,” Wang said.

“If that continues, the commercial banks will collapse, because that’s where the money is coming from in the first place.”

And buyers aren’t the only ones protesting.

On Aug. 2, a group of property developers in the eastern city of Hefei called on the local government this month to crack down on what they described as “malicious protests” by homebuyers, Reuters reported.

The letter is one of the first known efforts by developers joining together to push back against a spreading revolt by homebuyers, who have threatened to stop paying mortgages on hundreds of unfinished housing projects, the agency said.

It quoted a developer as saying that the government had “stepped in” and held meetings with both sides following the letter.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

China’s massive war games and missile launches near Taiwan in angry response to the controversial stopover on the democratic island by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to have had the opposite effect to what Beijing intended. Another U.S. Congressional delegation visited Taipei and met with President Tsai Ing-wen just 12 days after the Pelosi trip, while lawmakers from other countries say they plan to visit Taiwan.

Myanmar’s junta has sent more than 400 soldiers to Demoso township in Kayah (Karenni) State this month, with opposition Progressive Karenni People’s Force (PKPF) and civil society officials saying they expect a major offensive in the near future.

More than 200 reinforcements were sent from Moe Bye and a similar number from Pekon township, both on the border of Shan State, since the beginning of August.

On Thursday military convoys, including tanks, entered Shadaw township according to Ko Kayan, the information officer of the Demoso’s People’s Defense Force (PDF).

Up to 200 troops have been deployed near Ngwe Taung Dam in Demoso township, abandoned by most of its residents due to fierce fighting between junta troops and PDFs in past battles.

Hundreds of troops are also reinforcing the junta’s main camps in the western part of Demoso city.

Kayan said tanks and drones, in addition to stationary troops, have been sent to an area where armed resistance is fierce.

“There are more military activities in many places than before,” he said. “There are three or four tanks on standby in the docks and drones in Hpruso township.”

The Military Council’s Army 531 force and the 12th Grade High Training School have been fighting PDFs in Hpruso. Battalions under the junta’s 66th Division have also stepped up operations in the region, according to local Karenni Defense Force officials.

A PKPF official told RFA the junta has suffered major casualties and has no public support so it is replenishing its forces to try to control Kayah State.

Karenni Human Rights Group (KnHRG) director Ko Banyar said junta forces may be trying to control the main townships of Karenni State, where armed resistance is strong, in the run up to next year’s national elections.

“Every year, in the rainy season, they don’t reinforce and halt their offensives,” he said.

“Now the situation is that they want to reinforce troops and expand the territory [they control], which could be related to the upcoming elections in 2023 … If they can control the territory they can hold the election, then hand over the power to the winning party to gain political legitimacy. So Military Council forces are carrying out operations to control the hubs like Loikaw city in Kayah State and Demoso township.”

He added that there are thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who have fled the city to forests on the east and west sides of Demoso. If fighting breaks out the IDPs may also suffer casualties and Banyar said he is concerned about the shortage of food and medicine.

The Military Council spokesperson in Kayah State refused to comment when contacted by RFA, saying he was too busy.

There have been 420 battles across Kayah State since the military coup on Feb. 1,2021 to Aug 15, 2022 according to the PKPF. It said149 members of PDFs and 1,306 junta soldiers were killed during that time.

According to state Civil Society organizations, nearly 300 local civilians have been killed in Kayah State in the 18 months since the coup and 200,000 have been forced to flee to safer places.

A Taiwanese state-run weapons developer conducted a series of live-fire missile tests on Thursday and Friday as a Chinese warship sailed near the island’s east coast, local media reported.

The National Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) test-fired Hsiung Sheng surface-to-surface cruise missiles into the eastern waters of Taiwan from the Jiupeng military base in Pingtung County, according to a report by the official Central News Agency (CNA).

Just hours before the test began, a Chinese guided-missile destroyer was spotted 60 kilometers (37 miles) northeast of Green Island, Taitung County.

Green Island is only over 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Taiwan’s main island and, together with Orchid Island, is included in the “danger zone” of the projectiles which extends about 200 kilometers (124 miles) off the coast of Taitung. 

CNA quoted anonymous military sources as saying that after China completed military drills around Taiwan, in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit earlier this month, three missile destroyers and one electronic reconnaissance ship remained in the waters east of Taiwan. However, only one of them was still there on Thursday.

The NCSIST announced last month that it would conduct two rounds of missile tests on Aug. 18-19 and Aug. 25-26. The missiles have an “unlimited” projectile altitude, meaning they are medium and long-range.

‘No threat to China’

The Hsiung Sheng cruise missile is an improved variant of Taiwan’s homegrown Hsiung Feng 2-E missile and has a reported range of up to 1,200 kilometers (746 miles), making it capable of striking targets in Chinese cities as far as Qingdao.

Meanwhile, according to the air traffic tracking website Flightradar24, a U.S. Air Force USN P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft was operating near southern Taiwan on Friday morning.

An E-8C Joint STARS also flew over the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines on Wednesday. The E-8C Joint STARS is the U.S. Air Force’s leading ground tracking and battle management aircraft.

Chinese analysts told state media that both the Taiwanese missiles and the U.S. aircraft posed no “credible threats” to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert, was quoted by the Global Times as saying that “Taiwan media outlets are ignorant to believe the U.S. aircraft can deter the PLA, as the PLA has already dealt with many US reconnaissance aircraft like it.” 

The PLA should be ready to increase reconnaissance intensity on Taiwan as well as to conduct regular military drills, according to Song.

China has yet to respond to Taiwan’s allegation that the PLA falsely claimed its aircraft had flown over Penghu, one of Taiwan’s most important outlying islands.

The Eastern Theater Command of the PLA published a video on WeChat  on Monday purportedly showing Penghu Islands as seen from a military aircraft at a relatively close proximity.

“This is pure propaganda, consistent with the PLA’s airbrushed photos, fake videos, and other falsehoods and disinformation that have been released in the past several days,” said Drew Thompson, a former U.S. defense official and senior visiting fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

“The Taiwan military has an integrated air defense and surveillance network made up of many radars and sensors, including one of the most powerful radars in the world, giving them the ability to detect and track any target flying within thousands of miles of Taiwan,” Thompson told RFA.

“This PLA Air Force’s mission is pure fantasy,” he added.