Word: china
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...historic point in the challenges it faces," says Pham Hong Son, a former doctor and businessman who spent four years in prison on charges of spying after he posted a online translation of a U.S. government document entitled "What is Democracy?" Son believes authorities' cozy relationship with China has little benefit to most Vietnamese, and that authorities are only interested in protecting their own interests at the expense of the country. He doesn't expect the recent verdicts to have the intended effect of muffling discontent. The sham trial, he says, only further illustrates the corruption within the regime...
...expansive stimulus spending and a flood of cheap credit, the Chinese government was able to ensure growth, giving it clout at home and abroad as other major world economies still grapple with slow recoveries. "Those measures quickly produced results and stopped the remarkable decline in our economic growth, and China thus became the first to, on the whole, achieve recovery and stabilization in its economy," said Ma Jiantang, director of the National Bureau of Statistics...
...efforts - a runaway property market. Fueled by cheap credit, property prices have grown steadily since mid-2009. A government survey of 70 medium- and large-size cities found that in December, average housing costs jumped 2.1% over the previous month - the fastest increase in 18 months. (See pictures of China's infrastructure boom...
...curb property speculation, Beijing has reintroduced a sales tax on residences resold within five years of their purchase. Earlier this month the State Council introduced a rule that requires a 40% down payment on the purchase of a second home, and on Jan. 12, China's central bank raised the reserve requirement for commercial lenders in an effort to control the torrid growth of credit after the value of new loans more than doubled last year. (See pictures of the best-selling cars in China...
...Some property developers and economists have called China's housing market a bubble. Whether the government can gently deflate it is an open question. Beijing's past efforts to control housing prices have been unsuccessful, says Shanghai-based economist Andy Xie. One flaw is that local governments rely on land sales for about one-third of their revenue, which gives them an incentive to keep prices high. "Somehow, the market keeps going up," Xie says. "People think the government is not sincere about tightening. How would the biggest beneficiary let the price fall...