China's Property Tax Has Look of a Death Foretold
It was predictable that the plan would run into resistance, with the industry already reeling from the Evergrande fallout.
Too many people have a stake in China’s property market to support a tax.
Photographer: Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty
Some things are so predictable you could almost set your watch by them: debt ceiling standoffs on Capitol Hill, the Bitcoin bubble rising from the dead again, Manchester City winning the Premier League. Add to that list the news that China’s planned property tax has run into serious headwinds.
Feedback on the proposal both from Communist Party elites and rank-and-file members has been overwhelmingly negative, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the deliberations. Han Zheng, the vice premier tasked with the rollout, has recommended against imposing the levy too widely for now, and a plan for a test run in 30 cities has been scaled back to about 10, the report said.