Commentary
Something rare is happening in China. Protests and boycotts are expanding.
Not for democracy, exactly, as in 1989 in Tiananmen Square and up to 2020 in Hong Kong. The protests today—from Beijing to Guangxi and recently in Hong Kong—are outwardly against property developers who absconded with down payments, never to deliver the promised apartments. These homes now exist as vacant windows—seen but inaccessible to the families who bought them—in lifeless gray hulks that lack the living pulse of electricity, water, elevators, and neighbors.
Yet those who lost their down payments in ghost apartments that string together into ghost cities are required to pay their monthly ghost mortgages. The response is a revolt and spreading “mortgage boycotts” throughout China….