 Letters and Blogs
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-23 07:45 How about mainland firms? Comment on "Taiwan firms get $19b loan lifeline" (China Daily, Dec 22) We will spend so much money in helping the Taiwan enterprises, whose situation may be much better than that of most of the companies in mainland now. So should our enterprises combat the financial crisis all by themselves? Fonde on China Daily website Love pets, but care for poor too Comment on "Thrifty owners abandon pets to save money" (China Daily website, Dec 19) What a waste of sympathy. Abandoned dogs bring us to tears. But do people care more about our members of society who are homeless and are forced to beg on the streets? What about the Sichuan earthquake victims still in need of housing? Animals should not be treated cruelly but humble people need the same sympathy. Please balance sentiment. Rspca on China Daily website My cat is a rescue cat. She is a member of my family and I will never abandon her. The trust and love of an animal is unconditional and, as some friends said, "your dog will be quite happy even if it begs with you from passers-by, as long as it's together with you." Jim K on China Daily website Don't rush to buy cheap US houses One of the current hot topics is purchasing real estate properties in the United States. Previously, such a theme belonged only to a few of wealthy people chatting in a party, or in a salon, toasting to each other with red wine leisurely. But now, not only every one wants to join the discussion, some even organize tour teams to the US to buy houses. Frankly, such a "US property fever" makes a sharp contrast to the stagnant real estate market in the Chinese mainland. To comment on this, one may say that Chinese people are no longer the ones they used to be; right now they have huge lumps of cash to save real estate markets elsewhere. Or one may say that Chinese investors are so discerning, they are seizing the market's bottom, taking advantage of the gloom over the US housing market after Americans got unnerved by the financial crisis. Moreover, Chinese have been flattered as being good planners in arranging the purchases by special planning teams, professional intermediary agents and even TV reports. But just wait for a minute. Learn from recent history, Japanese were even rumored as rich enough to buy the whole of the US before their real estate bubble ended up bursting. Obviously, when this time the US' buildings again seemed pretty cheap, Japanese investors didn't respond as their outspoken Chinese counterparts. In fact, there are roughly two kinds of people considering purchasing US properties: those who have kids studying there or property investors seeking profit there. However, none of these house buyers deals with China's tottering real estate industry, let alone helping to carry out macroeconomic measures like expanding demand and boosting consumer spending. In short, we should focus on trying to save our own shaken real estate economy, rather than being distracted by an unfamiliar market. Wang Shitai on blog.sina.com.cn Readers' comments are welcome. Please send mail to Letters to the Editor, China Daily, 15 Huixin Dongjie, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100029 China. Send faxes to (86-10) 6491-8377. Send e-mail to opinion@chinadaily.com.cn or letters@chinadaily.com.cn or to the individual columnists. China Daily reserves the right to edit all letters. Thank you. (China Daily 12/23/2008 page9) |
