Reuters (February 28)
China’s housing market seems to be approaching a paradigm shift. “The broad idea is to create a two-tier system. Local governments will rent out or sell flats below market prices to most residents, including some 300 million Chinese migrant workers who live far away from their hometowns in the mainland. Upgraders and investors could settle for a smaller private residential market, where regulators meddle less.”
Tags: China, Flats, Housing market, Investors, Local governments, Market prices, Migrant workers, Paradigm shift, Regulators, Rent, Residential, Residents, Sell, Two-tier system
Wall Street Journal (September 24)
“America’s billionaires love Japanese stocks. Why don’t the Japanese?” Despite enthusiasm from overseas, “there are few signs its estimated 125 million residents share in the excitement. Burned by dismal returns since the bursting of Japan’s asset bubble in the late 1980s and early 1990s, generations of families here have stashed most of their money in low-yielding savings accounts rather than trying to increase their wealth through the stock market.”
Tags: 1980s, 1990s, Asset bubble, Billionaires, Dismal returns, Enthusiasm, Excitement, Japan, Low-yielding, Money, Overseas, Residents, Savings accounts, Stashed, Stock market, Stocks, U.S.
New York Times (December 13)
With Zero-Covid restrictions lifted, Beijing again “looks like a city in the throes of a lockdown — this time, self-imposed by residents. Sidewalks and pedestrian shopping streets are barren, and once busy traffic thoroughfares are deserted. Residents are hunkering down indoors and hoarding medicine as a wave of Covid sweeps across the Chinese capital.”
Tags: Barren, Beijing, Deserted, Hoarding, Hunkering down, Lockdown, Medicine, Residents, Restrictions, Self-imposed, Shopping streets, Zero COVID
BBC (September 12)
China “is the world’s last major economy attempting to entirely stamp out Covid outbreaks, claiming this is necessary to prevent wider surges of the virus which could overwhelm hospitals.” At present, “tens of millions of people in at least 30 regions have been ordered to stay at home under partial or full lockdowns,” with some of the impacted residents “complaining of shortages of food and essential items.”
Tags: China, Complaining, Covid outbreaks, Food, Home, Hospitals, Last, Lockdowns, Major economy, Overwhelm, Prevent, Residents, Shortages, Stamp out, Surges, Virus
The Guardian (May 10)
“Tensions between Shanghai residents and China’s Covid enforcers are on the rise again, amid a new push to end infections outside quarantine zones to meet President Xi Jinping’s demand for achieving “dynamic zero-Covid.” To express their displeasure with what are increasingly being viewed as violations of human rights and the rule of law, residents are sharing incriminating videos on social media. “Censors have been taking down many of these videos, but determined residents have continued to post them.”
Tags: China, Covid, Displeasure, Enforcers, Human rights, Infections, Quarantine, Residents, Rule of law, Shanghai, Social media, Tensions, Videos, Violations, Xi
South China Morning Post (March 1)
“Hong Kong residents are waiting up to 39 hours for an ambulance as the health care system struggles to keep up with an escalating wave of Covid-19 cases, with the delay up by as much as 50 per cent in just two days.”
Tags: 39 hours, Ambulance, COVID-19, Delay, Escalating, Health care, Hong Kong, Residents, Struggles, Waiting, Wave
Star-Ledger (September 23)
“Facing a lack of bus drivers at the start of the academic year, school districts around the state are dangling incentives that include higher pay for commercial drivers and ‘parent contracts’ worth $1,000 for residents to transport their kids to school in their own cars. The issue extends beyond the state’s borders. In Massachusetts, the governor activated 250 members of the National Guard to get behind the wheel of school transport vans.”
Tags: Bus drivers, Commercial drivers, Higher pay, Incentives, Lack, Massachusetts, National Guard, Parent contracts, Residents, School districts, Transport
The Mercury News (September 29)
“It’s becoming something of a tragic annual tradition for California’s wine country: Fast-moving flames terrorizing the regions, turning the sky into a smoky orange haze, destroying dozens of homes and wineries in its wrath and forcing tens of thousands of residents to frantically flee from their homes.”
Tags: California, Destroying, Flames, Haze, Homes, Residents, Tradition, Tragic, Wine Country, Wineries, Wrath
Chicago Tribune (June 2)
“What do you say to a city whose residents, livelihoods and sense of security have been pummeled by the coronavirus pandemic and then civil unrest and mass looting? You say that Chicago is up to the challenge and must move forward. You say: Reopen and rebuild…. This resilient city will recover again.”
Tags: Chicago, Civil unrest, Coronavirus, Livelihoods, Mass looting, Pandemic, Pummeled, Rebuild, Recover, Reopen, Residents, Resilient, Security
Bloomberg (March 11)
“It’s been five years since the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl shook Fukushima. Roads have been rebuilt and electricity has been restored. But life has still not returned to normal for many of the prefecture’s residents.”