Chinese TV Host Says Regime Nearly Bankrupt

[the other one]

Chinese TV Host Says Regime Nearly Bankrupt
By Matthew Robertson
Epoch Times Staff

China’s economy has a reputation for being strong and prosperous, but according to a well-known Chinese television personality the country’s Gross Domestic Product is going in reverse.

Larry Lang, chair professor of Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in a lecture that he didn’t think was being recorded that the Chinese regime is in a serious economic crisis—on the brink of bankruptcy. In his memorable formulation: every province in China is Greece.

The restrictions Lang placed on the Oct. 22 speech in Shenyang City, in northern China’s Liaoning Province, included no audio or video recording, and no media. He can be heard saying that people should not post his speech online, or “everyone will look bad,” in the audio that is now on Youtube.

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Firstly, that the regime’s debt sits at about 36 trillion yuan (US$5.68 trillion). This calculation is arrived at by adding up Chinese local government debt (between 16 trillion and 19.5 trillion yuan, or US$2.5 trillion and US$3 trillion), and the debt owed by state-owned enterprises (another 16 trillion, he said). But with interest of two trillion per year, he thinks things will unravel quickly....

More at link

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/chinese-tv-host-says-regime-nearly-bankrupt-141214.html

[AngryAmish]

1. This is going to be interesting in many ways

The CCP sees itself in many ways but mostly as the smartest, most capable people who are dragging their more backward countrymen into the first world. As such they see themselves as a natural ruling elite not unlike a dynasty of old. Their Marxist/Leninist/Maoist beliefs mean that they, as the vangard of the proletariet must lead in order to create societal harmony. (I'm skipping over a lot of socialist mumbo-jumbo but the bottom line is that the CCP is in charge and everyone else must take it or else.)

The CCP's "mandate of heaven" such as it is means peace AND prosperity at home. If the local governments blow up then this prosperity won't last long. I don't know enough about the internal divisions of the CCP but would there be a splintering?

[KamaAina]

2. Epoch Times = Falun Gong propaganda sheet

You'd be wise to take that with a grain of salt.

[the other one]

5. I'm trying to figure out what that means

The articles seem legitimate enough.

Is Epoch Times any more propagandistic than any other source?

Falun Gong doesn't seem to be overtly political.

So what are they propagandizing?

I'm curious because I don't know.

on Edit this is what I found in Time magazine:

Wacky, perhaps. But is Falun Gong a cult? Not necessarily, if classic characteristics of cults are taken into account. A reckoning:

Typical Cult Techniques Falun Gong's Record
� Exerts tremendous pressure on people to join NO
� Fosters an us-versus-them approach to life YES
� Believers remove themselves from society NO
� Uses jargon that outsiders don't understand YES
� Believers required to donate large sums of money NO
� Led by a charismatic master YES

So exactly what is the problem with Falun Gong and the Epoch Times?

[KamaAina]

6. Falun Gong is bitterly opposed to the Chinese government

and rightly so, considering the severe measures it has taken against them.

But anything you read about China in the Epoch Times is as biased as something you read about Democrats in the Wall Street Journal.

[redqueen]

3. K&R

I hope he doesn't get in trouble for saying this.

[dkf]

4. Well I guess they won't be bailing out the Europeans then.

[redqueen]

7. And while we're on the subject...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-21/china-real-estate-at-tipping-point-nomura.html

China Real Estate at ‘Tipping Point’: Nomura

China’s property market has reached a “tipping point” and the slowdown in the housing industry will have a spillover effect on demand for steel and other construction materials, according to Nomura Holdings Inc.

The risk of the nation’s economic growth falling to less than 8 percent in the first quarter is also higher than before because of the housing market, Zhang Zhiwei, a Hong Kong-based economist at Nomura, said on a conference call today.

“The property sector has probably already reached a tipping point given the data is getting worse at a very fast pace,” Zhang said. “We’ve been here before in 2008 with housing investment and I feel we’re getting close to that stage. I’m more worried about the housing sector and the GDP of the first quarter.”

China’s home prices fell in 33 of 70 cities monitored by the government in October, the worst performance since it expanded property curbs and scrapped the reporting of national average housing data this year, according to figures from the statistics bureau on Nov. 18.