I saw this same "report" 8-9 months ago on some chinese web sites /blogs. I can say it is completely false information without any facts to back it up. The best way to find out is to go to big cities in China and have a feeling about it. maybe 1-2 million flats are vacant in whole china, but 65 million, that is totally wrong.
Edit: he's a rotten small brussels sprout name TradeMetal who is not only a PATHETIC LOSER and a Coward but also Mentally Retarted Idiot...he's expecting Americans to fight and die in Iraq war to prosper his mini tiny small little pathetic country in EU??? he thinks China is bad and America is so stupid? China or America can crush this rotten small brussels sprout's little country like playing video games ... gone in minutes!
I am the one who started this post. First, I just found this article. http://news.hexun.com.tw/2010-07-08/124182612.html It questions whether the reliability of the news as: i) the flats are found to be vacant by measuring the power meters. But there are only a few million power meters in China so it is impossible to reach the figure that 6.5 million flats are vacant ii) 6.5 million flats is around 4.5-5.8 billion square million square meter. This is around one third of the total construction area made. This is ridiculously high
????? 6.5Million x 75m2 = 487Million m2 I hope you are not a trader, like with real money and such stuff.
I am in Chinese working in a western MNC. I am in charge of a line which has revenue of around 50 million USD a year. To be fair, corruption and cheating is common here. But we have many cases that our US distributors cheat on us too. What I mean is not just lying during negotiation but outright manipulation of the system to take advantage (so they can save millions a year). I used to work in another US MNC. My US boss wants to promote some products but doesn't know much about it. So he simply copy and paste the spec of products from another US competitor and then claim that we are developing them. I am just telling my own first person experience.
Some figures for you all... these are not official statistics but what I learn from my own first-hand experience. These are the figures for cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen. i) a fresh university graduate makes ~USD400 a month ii) average housing price is around USD3000-4000 per square meter iii) a factory line worker makes USD150-250 a month. Free dorm and meal are normally provided. iv) a taxi driver makes USD400-500 a month. They used to be able to pocket over USD1,000 a month 10 years ago as cars are now popular One thing very important to bear in mind, each Chinese has his own "census register" (戶籍. So if he is born in the countryside, he will lose all entitlement to government sponsorship of education, housing, pension, medicine, etc when he moves into a city. China government is considering to change but this policy has the impact that it creates 2 classes in China: those in big cities and those in the countryside. Another thing to bear in mind is that normal Chinese are in no way rich, even for those so-called middle class. Most of them are not in debt but they don't really have a lot money. China savings rate is high because the corporations make huge profits and save it. The banks are highly inefficient but they are perfect investment as the lend/borrow rate difference is huge. So while China economy is growing rapidly, many locals don't feel the benefits.
"you" Chinese? And many Americans do not cheat? I know many Chinese who never cheated in their life. Saying everyone cheats makes you sound pretty stupid.