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> One good rule of thumb is that whenever people are blaming foreigners for their problems, they're wrong. I don't think history reflects this view. You might

> One good rule of thumb is that whenever people are blaming foreigners for their problems, they're wrong. I don't think history reflects this view. You might remember something like the Revolutionary War, et al. One country often targets and exploits other groups of people. In modern terms, "foreigners" is a practical way to describe the exclusion of a specific nation's members and it's allies. In the USA/China sometimes there's policy that's populist misinformation. In retrospect (decades later) the sentiment is seen as reasonable. Let's take for granted that you meant "in housing markets". In Canada and the Seattle^ area, luxury homes and goods were commonly considered to be dominated by wealthy Chinese "investors". I dont remember the exact Chinese tax law change enacted by Xi (which effectively taxed foreign holdings), but it caused a mass exodus of Chinese investment and crashed the luxury good market for the Bellevue area over a handful of months. I had left the area by then, so I didn't track it too closely. Seattle is back as a top destination for Chinese millionaires...but I don't know much about that either. ^ https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/business/in-suburban-seattle-new-nests-for-chinas-rich.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/business/in-suburban-seat... ^ https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-becomes-no-1-us-market-for-chinese-homebuyers/ https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-be... p.s. I do think there's some strange belief that people making broad claims are stupid or less connected and informed than in the past. Almost anyone can talk to brokers and realtors and get this information, as opposed to random internet assumption of inaccuracy.

seanmcdirmid 4y ago
> I dont remember the exact Chinese tax law change enacted by Xi (which effectively taxed foreign holdings), but it caused a mass exodus of Chinese investment and crashed the luxury good market for the Bellevue area over a handful of months. China doesn't tax property even in China, so I would be surprised if it taxed property held in America. I haven't heard of any specific tax laws on foreign holdings (and in general, China unlike the USA does not tax worldwide income for its citizens and residents). What could have happened is something more informal, like a threat to the upper class to reign in their excess, but Bellevue, at least, is still heavily being populated by Chinese (primarily techies, not investors, who wouldn't be affected by whatever Xi said anyways).

seanmcdirmid 4y ago

> I dont remember the exact Chinese tax law change enacted by Xi (which effectively taxed foreign holdings), but it caused a mass exodus of Chinese investment and crashed the luxury good market for the Bellevue area over a handful of months. China doesn't tax property even in China, so I would be surprised if it taxed property held in America. I haven't heard of any specific tax laws on foreign holdings (and in general, China unlike the USA does not tax worldwide income for its citizens and residents). What could have happened is something more informal, like a threat to the upper class to reign in their excess, but Bellevue, at least, is still heavily being populated by Chinese (primarily techies, not investors, who wouldn't be affected by whatever Xi said anyways).