| Hi, this is Allen Wan in Shanghai. I was recently in Zhengzhou, a manufacturing hub for iPhones, with a colleague to check on the city’s efforts to end its part of a lingering nationwide housing crisis and threatens to further torpedo the world’s second-biggest economy. Zhengzhou is unique in that it was one of the first cities to suffer a crash, and it has been among the most aggressive in coming up with measures to revive its property market and achieve its ambition of advancing to megacity status like, say, Chongqing. The problem is simple: little demand, much too much supply. With home values falling and families relying on real estate for almost 80% of their wealth at the peak, it’s no wonder consumers are unwilling to spend while deflation remains persistent. Many Chinese cities have eased property curbs to spur buying but Zhengzhou has gone further by buying unsold units from developers at a discount and repurposing them as affordable homes. The city has purchased more than 100,000 units in the past few years at a cost of several billion dollars. Listen to the Big Take Asia Podcast about the scene in Zhengzhou here and read the story here. That’s a drop in the bucket compared with the tens of millions of homes sitting empty nationwide. Still, some observers laud Zhengzhou as a model of reform and officials from other cities have been looking to emulate it. Perhaps that’s a bit premature. During our trip, we checked out several projects, some of which have gradually resumed construction after getting funding through Xi Jinping's 4 trillion yuan ($548 billion) plan to lend to developers so they can finish projects. At one development called Creekside Cilla, work had in fact resumed. But nearby was another that apparently didn’t get that precious money so no construction was happening. Instead, locals were planting vegetable gardens on grounds meant for new homes. Then there’s the tricky matter of demand. Of the seven sales offices we visited, most were empty. In one, run by the distressed developer Country Garden, just a handful of customers were milling around a sleek showroom, next to giant signs assuring them that the projects were on the funding list. Some economists think China’s real estate crisis will be a drag on growth for at least five more years. If that happens, dire predictions that the country faces a lost decade similar to 1990s Japan may be on target. These are some of our favorite reads, listens and watches from the past year. Enjoy! - This story showed how China has used the four years Trump has been out of power to try and out-game him when it comes to tech and trade curbs
- This one explained how the human egg has become big business from Taiwan to Greece … And this article laid out how an empty megastore illustrated just how bad the luxury goods crash in China got
- Here’s a deep dive into how Xi’s dominance of the economy spurred unrest, and another on how the Chinese leader unleashed a crisis for the nation’s best-paid workers
- And if you ever need a refresher, this simple guide explains China’s complicated policy universe. And since deflation will be a theme again in 2025, this will come in handy too
- This Big Take Asia podcast delved into BYD’s strategy for becoming the world's EV giant, and beating Tesla, without the US market
- This podcast dug into why China’s top bankers are embracing communism, and this one explained how an economic zone became a crime hub
- Here’s a pod on how Luckin Coffee overcame a series of obstacles to surpass Starbucks, and another interesting one on how China is reshaping Hong Kong and what it means for the city’s future
- This poignant Originals documentary took viewers inside the worlds of everyday Chinese, capturing in detail how the economic slowdown is impacting a generation who’ve known nothing but blockbuster growth
- The new series, Posthuman, with Emily Chang opened with a look at how the AI robots of the future might surpass us
- And finally for all you sports fans out there, here’s a more recent chat with Steph Curry on his growing business portfolio
 | | | Xi indicated this week that purges were a feature, not a bug, of the ruling Communist Party’s system – a pretty clear sign if any were needed that we can expect more officials to fall from grace due to corruption. “Changes in the external environment and in the party membership will inevitably lead to various conflicts and problems within the party,” he said in a speech earlier this year, though the remarks were only recently made public. Using somewhat macabre language, Xi said it was sometimes necessary to turn “the blade inward to ensure that the party is always full of vigor and vitality.” Read our story about the Chinese leader’s views here. The remarks show that Xi doesn’t see the sweeping anti-corruption crackdowns as embarrassing for his party, which has an unchallenged grip on the nation of 1.4 billion people. Instead, he views them as a way to keep everyone on their toes. They also put a new spin on the corruption-busting that the Chinese leader has done to root out dirty officials and eliminate rivals since taking office more than a decade ago. That endeavor has ensnared a record number of senior figures for two straight years, and set off a broad purge that’s still roiling the military — one that the US thinks may hinder Beijing’s modernization goals for its armed forces. Leaders around the country got a pretty grim reminder of how dangerous being corrupt can be when China carried out a rare execution of an official this week. The government of the Asian nation tends to avoid capital punishment for officials, usually sentencing them to what amounts to life in prison. But 64-year-old Li Jianping, may have pushed his luck because his case somehow involved the whopping equivalent of $412 million even though he was just the party chief of an industrial zone in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia. Kill the chicken to scare the monkey, goes a phrase in Chinese that works out to making an example of someone to deter others. That seems to sum up one aspect of Xi’s style pretty well. | 
