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An idea, any foreign country that forbids buying land in their country [0] is not allowed to buy land in our country. Sound equal? [0] "Foreign investors are n

An idea, any foreign country that forbids buying land in their country [0] is not allowed to buy land in our country. Sound equal? [0] "Foreign investors are not allowed to buy land in China. The land in China belongs to the state and the collectives." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_property_law#Buying_land https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_property_law#Buying_la... Edit: I think it's reasonable to leverage our freedom as an asset instead of a liability to be abused. Edit: Replaced "fair" with "equal"

rgbrenner 9y ago
Chinese can't buy chinese land. They only get the right to use the land. Land-use rights can be bought by foreign investors for some projects.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  And they might even be granted as an incentive....
- HumanDrivenDev 9y ago
  That's not the rest of the worlds problem. If they want to buy other peoples land, then other people should be able to buy theres. They're taking advantage of us.
  - ghaff 9y ago
    Except in a small number of locations, the US doesn’t exactly have a land shortage. Nor a particular shortage of small liberal arts schools with sketchy financial situations.
- pascalxus 9y ago
  Yes, but for the right to use that house or condo, they don't need to pay property taxes, whereas most of the rest of the world you have to pay rent (property taxes) to the government. If you have to pay vast sums of rent to keep it, do you really own it?
  - klipt 9y ago
    Letting rich landlords accumulate land without paying any taxes on it is how you get feudalism. I don't think most people want to live in a feudal society, do you?
    - fspeech 9y ago
      Maybe you didn't see that his premise is that no one in China can own land outright. But you are right concentration of land ownership is problematic for a crowded country like China and it was one of causes for the peasant revolution.
    - pascalxus 9y ago
      That's true, you definately want some property taxes in cities and urban areas. but, i don't see the harm of near 0 taxes in rural areas with little land demand.
- masonic 9y ago
  Perhaps Mexico is a better example; they restrict the ability of Americans to buy Mexican land within X distance of the border or within Y distance of a coast.
  - skookumchuck 9y ago
    Yes, and look at how well their economy does.
    - B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
      Yeah, but it's been over a century since they lost any states.
      - skookumchuck 9y ago
        And millions and millions move to the US.
msie 9y ago
What is "fair", really? It may not sound fair to those property owners who want to sell and bought the land on the hope that they can sell it some day.
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
Nobody can buy land in china, but Microsoft was granted a long term lease on some nice prime real estate in zuongguancun that HR at the time of our move bragged had already made Microsoft a lot of money in land appreciation.
ksk 9y ago
>An idea, any foreign country that forbids buying land in their country [0] is not allowed to buy land in our country. Sound equal? FWICT, they also don't allow their own citizens to purchase land. In that sense, they're treating foreign citizens equally. Also, this seems to return some useful info: https://www.google.com/search?&q=how+to+buy+land+in+china https://www.google.com/search?&q=how+to+buy+land+in+china Seems like people have found a way to purchase land. >I think it's reasonable to leverage our freedom as an asset instead of a liability to be abused. What do you mean by leverage?
- RobertRoberts 9y ago
  >What do you mean by leverage? Use our freedom to implement a fair trading system. We are free to buy and sell here, but not in China. China takes advantage of us because of this, and up till now, we have had no recourse accept "trade wars". Instead of a trade war with tariffs and accusations and bickering, why not remove all possible complaints and treat others as they want to be treated? Use Chinese rules for the Chinese. Completely and utterly balanced trade. If they don't like it, they can change their rules to be more free, and they get more freedom to buy here. How would the Chinese government complain to the international community about the US applying their own rules to land ownership? How could anyone complain? It would be the height of hypocrisy, so they wouldn't. So why not use our freedom as the ultimate bargaining tool to create a balance in the world? Other countries could do the same to us, and we couldn't complain either. It seems there has to be a game theory equation to explain this, it can't be the first time it's been considered.
  - ksk 9y ago
    Why do you think the US would stay the same if it became closed like China? What makes you think that the freedom is a liability? You're essentially advocating to reverse decades if not centuries of policy that justified US foreign policy actions, because the US assumed moral high ground on several geopolitical fronts. IMO it would degrade the USs standing on several policy issues. "trust us, we're the good guys." no longer works. I'm sure China and Russia would love to park their navy outside of Florida in international waters because the US does similar things.
khana 9y ago
Truly before we get usurped and wonder wtf hit us.
halflings 9y ago
This is the same argument constantly used to justify violating a country's own values: "If we can't build a church in Saudi Arabia, you shouldn't be able to build a mosque in our country." Thing is, it's Americans selling this land. So compromising on those freedoms just to align yourself with bad policies a country is following that sound wise.
- RobertRoberts 9y ago
  >This is the same argument constantly used to justify violating a country's own values... I think you are conflating two separate issues, nations vs individuals. If an individual wants to buy land and happens to be Chinese, who cares? But this is the Chinese Government buying land in the US. It's not the same thing, so different rules should apply. Let's take this to the extreme to see how bad it could unreasonably get. What would happen if a single foreign government (for the sake of argument, run by a dictator for life) bought all the land in the US...? Or even less crazy, a majority of the movie production companies (or used their market share to force government paid censors to be at the filming and have editorial rights), colleges (or controlling interest in them), news companies, or valuable land (no need to buy deserts), etc ... seem far fetched?
  - EGreg 9y ago
    Seems something the CIA would do in Cuba or Nestle would do in a small country or village if they could. Why is it OK for corporations? http://naturalsociety.com/nestle-ceo-water-not-human-right-should-be-privatized/ http://naturalsociety.com/nestle-ceo-water-not-human-right-s... It actually happened: https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2006/bechtel-surrenders-in-bolivia-water-revolt-case https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2006/bechtel-surrenders-...
forapurpose 9y ago
First, I agree with halflings' comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16633122 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16633122 Second, there are two sides to a deal. The parent's plan will penalize the seller as well the buyer, both buy reducing demand and by taking away the best deal. That's a problem with all trade restrictions. If your country won't buy from others, why will others buy from you? Only North Korea tries to go without trade to a large extent and even they smuggle goods.
- RobertRoberts 9y ago
  >...buy reducing demand and by taking away the best deal. Are you suggesting a completely free market without any government constraints at all?
zmonkeyz 9y ago
My mother-in-law is Korean (became a citizen in the 80's) and even she thinks it is stupid that anyone can come in and buy American land.
arenaninja 9y ago
Not only that, but businesses as well. A friend and I came up with a pretty obvious idea on something we could ship to China, only to figure out we were landlocked unless we essentially took on Chinese partners. We launched another venture aimed at the US population where Chinese citizens freely compete against us, honestly it sucks that we can't do the same.
bpicolo 9y ago
I think we should prevent any foreign country from buying our land in general tbh. Land is literally the country itself and while it's good for capital owners, the past 10 years show that foreign real estate investment seems to be decreasing QoL of the people that live here by jacking up rents and home prices.

rgbrenner 9y ago

Chinese can't buy chinese land. They only get the right to use the land. Land-use rights can be bought by foreign investors for some projects.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago
And they might even be granted as an incentive....
HumanDrivenDev 9y ago
That's not the rest of the worlds problem. If they want to buy other peoples land, then other people should be able to buy theres. They're taking advantage of us.
- ghaff 9y ago
  Except in a small number of locations, the US doesn’t exactly have a land shortage. Nor a particular shortage of small liberal arts schools with sketchy financial situations.
pascalxus 9y ago
Yes, but for the right to use that house or condo, they don't need to pay property taxes, whereas most of the rest of the world you have to pay rent (property taxes) to the government. If you have to pay vast sums of rent to keep it, do you really own it?
- klipt 9y ago
  Letting rich landlords accumulate land without paying any taxes on it is how you get feudalism. I don't think most people want to live in a feudal society, do you?
  - fspeech 9y ago
    Maybe you didn't see that his premise is that no one in China can own land outright. But you are right concentration of land ownership is problematic for a crowded country like China and it was one of causes for the peasant revolution.
  - pascalxus 9y ago
    That's true, you definately want some property taxes in cities and urban areas. but, i don't see the harm of near 0 taxes in rural areas with little land demand.
masonic 9y ago
Perhaps Mexico is a better example; they restrict the ability of Americans to buy Mexican land within X distance of the border or within Y distance of a coast.
- skookumchuck 9y ago
  Yes, and look at how well their economy does.
  - B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
    Yeah, but it's been over a century since they lost any states.
    - skookumchuck 9y ago
      And millions and millions move to the US.

msie 9y ago

What is "fair", really? It may not sound fair to those property owners who want to sell and bought the land on the hope that they can sell it some day.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago

Nobody can buy land in china, but Microsoft was granted a long term lease on some nice prime real estate in zuongguancun that HR at the time of our move bragged had already made Microsoft a lot of money in land appreciation.

ksk 9y ago

>An idea, any foreign country that forbids buying land in their country [0] is not allowed to buy land in our country. Sound equal? FWICT, they also don't allow their own citizens to purchase land. In that sense, they're treating foreign citizens equally. Also, this seems to return some useful info: https://www.google.com/search?&q=how+to+buy+land+in+china https://www.google.com/search?&q=how+to+buy+land+in+china Seems like people have found a way to purchase land. >I think it's reasonable to leverage our freedom as an asset instead of a liability to be abused. What do you mean by leverage?

RobertRoberts 9y ago
>What do you mean by leverage? Use our freedom to implement a fair trading system. We are free to buy and sell here, but not in China. China takes advantage of us because of this, and up till now, we have had no recourse accept "trade wars". Instead of a trade war with tariffs and accusations and bickering, why not remove all possible complaints and treat others as they want to be treated? Use Chinese rules for the Chinese. Completely and utterly balanced trade. If they don't like it, they can change their rules to be more free, and they get more freedom to buy here. How would the Chinese government complain to the international community about the US applying their own rules to land ownership? How could anyone complain? It would be the height of hypocrisy, so they wouldn't. So why not use our freedom as the ultimate bargaining tool to create a balance in the world? Other countries could do the same to us, and we couldn't complain either. It seems there has to be a game theory equation to explain this, it can't be the first time it's been considered.
- ksk 9y ago
  Why do you think the US would stay the same if it became closed like China? What makes you think that the freedom is a liability? You're essentially advocating to reverse decades if not centuries of policy that justified US foreign policy actions, because the US assumed moral high ground on several geopolitical fronts. IMO it would degrade the USs standing on several policy issues. "trust us, we're the good guys." no longer works. I'm sure China and Russia would love to park their navy outside of Florida in international waters because the US does similar things.

khana 9y ago

Truly before we get usurped and wonder wtf hit us.

halflings 9y ago

This is the same argument constantly used to justify violating a country's own values: "If we can't build a church in Saudi Arabia, you shouldn't be able to build a mosque in our country." Thing is, it's Americans selling this land. So compromising on those freedoms just to align yourself with bad policies a country is following that sound wise.

RobertRoberts 9y ago
>This is the same argument constantly used to justify violating a country's own values... I think you are conflating two separate issues, nations vs individuals. If an individual wants to buy land and happens to be Chinese, who cares? But this is the Chinese Government buying land in the US. It's not the same thing, so different rules should apply. Let's take this to the extreme to see how bad it could unreasonably get. What would happen if a single foreign government (for the sake of argument, run by a dictator for life) bought all the land in the US...? Or even less crazy, a majority of the movie production companies (or used their market share to force government paid censors to be at the filming and have editorial rights), colleges (or controlling interest in them), news companies, or valuable land (no need to buy deserts), etc ... seem far fetched?
- EGreg 9y ago
  Seems something the CIA would do in Cuba or Nestle would do in a small country or village if they could. Why is it OK for corporations? http://naturalsociety.com/nestle-ceo-water-not-human-right-should-be-privatized/ http://naturalsociety.com/nestle-ceo-water-not-human-right-s... It actually happened: https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2006/bechtel-surrenders-in-bolivia-water-revolt-case https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2006/bechtel-surrenders-...

forapurpose 9y ago

First, I agree with halflings' comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16633122 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16633122 Second, there are two sides to a deal. The parent's plan will penalize the seller as well the buyer, both buy reducing demand and by taking away the best deal. That's a problem with all trade restrictions. If your country won't buy from others, why will others buy from you? Only North Korea tries to go without trade to a large extent and even they smuggle goods.

RobertRoberts 9y ago
>...buy reducing demand and by taking away the best deal. Are you suggesting a completely free market without any government constraints at all?

zmonkeyz 9y ago

My mother-in-law is Korean (became a citizen in the 80's) and even she thinks it is stupid that anyone can come in and buy American land.

arenaninja 9y ago

Not only that, but businesses as well. A friend and I came up with a pretty obvious idea on something we could ship to China, only to figure out we were landlocked unless we essentially took on Chinese partners. We launched another venture aimed at the US population where Chinese citizens freely compete against us, honestly it sucks that we can't do the same.

bpicolo 9y ago

I think we should prevent any foreign country from buying our land in general tbh. Land is literally the country itself and while it's good for capital owners, the past 10 years show that foreign real estate investment seems to be decreasing QoL of the people that live here by jacking up rents and home prices.